KOEI has released a new video showing off some of the new bosses and even some Meng Huo footage in their latest gameplay trailer. Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce is due out February 16th on the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.
Archive - 2010
We were happy to take part in the recent beta test of Cryptic Studios’ upcoming MMO, Star Trek Online, and wanted to make sure we give you our preliminary thoughts on the game prior to its February 2nd release date (Feb. 5th in Europe).
After getting the beta client up and running, and following a rather large patch, I jumped into creating my first character. The game’s user-interface and themes seem to have a lot in common with Champions Online, Cryptic’s other MMO in play currently. At the time we played in the beta, we were limited to creating a Starfleet character at first. Overall, the system is similar to the previously-mentioned Champions but far less flamboyant in your options… (cont.)
See the rest of our Star Trek Online preview, After the Break!
You can select uniform themes and colors, as well as customize your body shape slightly. It never gets too out-of-hand, although we were able to create a few aliens we thought Starfleet might have trouble replicating uniforms for.
Once character creation was completed, we were thrust into the game’s tutorial mission, which is actually a series of missions strung together that nicely teaches you the basics of both ground and space combat. My advice to you new players is to read what NPCs say to you very carefully. The journal where your mission information is stored can sometimes not be verbose enough and you might miss some important clues if you don’t pay attention while the task is being assigned to you.
The ground combat in Star Trek Online was fun – similar to Champions in terms of using weapons and abilities, but level designs seemed a lot better in the way of how they fit with the Star Trek cannon. It was really exciting to beam my away team down to an alien world for the first time in the middle of what we would call a violent dust storm (I know not what the planet’s natives call it – but I digress). The game makes good use of flanking and combat keeps you moving and seeking cover. Attacking an enemy’s side or rear will result in a lot of extra damage so you will find some real challenge in battle with the various types of things you will fight – be it a Gorn, Borg, or Orion Slave-Woman.
Your away team is made up of your bridge offers and other selected ‘red-shirts’, and you never really feel alone as the squad AI is fairly good in keeping to their respective roles. You will be able to recruit Tactical, Engineering, and Science offers to your crew, each with their own set of technical abilities. It is pretty cool to see your blue-shirted science officers running around in the heat of battle healing your team up – all on their own.
The real meat and potatoes of Star Trek Online will most-likely be the space combat. Like a slightly more ‘arcadey’ variant of the Starfleet Command combat system, you will have to maneuver your ships around constantly, making sure to use your shield and weapon arcs to their fullest. When you begin facing off against multiple aggressors with your friends at your side, things become very exciting – even sometimes rivaling the Borg space battle at the opening of Star Trek: First Contact in terms of ‘Oorah’-factor. Phasers and disruptors burn shields, torpedos slam into ship hulls… Life is good when it comes to Star Trek Online’s space combat system.
Outside of combat, exploring starbases and other various objects seems adequate in providing a place for players to socialize. It will also be nice to see if Cryptic is going to allow players to congregate on each others starships at some point. In fact, there are so many places Cryptic can take STO it will be very exciting to see where they leads us.
Still in beta, however, the game was displaying several bugs, the most annoying of which can be seen below. To preface, there are no official EVAs in Star Trek Online, yet this seems to happen a lot.
Again, this is still in beta, so hopefully all the issues will be corrected by time the game is released.
Overall, we had a lot of fun playing Star Trek Online and feel like it is definitely going to be worth picking up. Standby for our full review of the game after its launch!
Also, remember to weigh your pre-order options carefully – many retailers offer different bonus items!
So, in case you have not already heard, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s long-talked about iPad today in San Francisco. The iPad features a 9.7” screen and full App Store compatibility. It will also be connected to what was announced as the iBooks store, Apple’s answer to the e-Reader marketplace. It does not, however, feature a camera or the ability to run multiple applications at once.
The 64GB model will retail for $699 without 3G capability and $829 with.
KOEI released a very informative video today showing off the different multiplayer modes in their upcoming Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce. The game, which is due out on February 16th in North America, features the ability for your characters to carry a sub-weapon as well as fly for brief periods.
Playing through BioWare’s 2007 action-RPG, Mass Effect, I was amazed at how drawn into the story I was – an entire universe opening up before my eyes as I, along with the help of my very diverse crew, defeated a rogue Spectre named Saren along with an ancient and incredibly powerful sentient machine bent on destroying all life in the galaxy. Originally released on the Xbox 360, it was followed up a year later with a PC version featuring an overhauled UI. The PC version was equally incredible and when I heard that Mass Effect 2 would be released simultaneously on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms, geek fireworks went off as I polished up my mouse and keyboard for the coming adventure. Now it’s here – Mass Effect 2 for the PC, and it is amazing.
First thing to note is that BioWare allows you to import your character from the original Mass Effect into the sequel. This allows your decisions to carry over making for an experience that really feels seamless from your previous adventure. If you do not have a character to import, aside from telling you to pick up and play Mass Effect right now – it was great, you shouldn’t worry as BioWare has found some clever moments and ways in the sequel to flesh out the various decisions you needed to make in the original game.
The game opens a short while after the first game ‘ends’ and, without spoiling anything, something so horrific happens that the game flashes forward two years into the future. Shepard wakes up in an unknown location with strange faces and a splitting headache as he is thrust into combat right away.
Mass Effect 2 is a lot more third-person shooter than RPG where its combat is concerned. The game features a Gears of War-like cover system that is vital to utilize throughout the game in order to survive. By pressing the left shift key you can pause the action to bring up a command window allowing you to change your or your squad’s weapons as well as using any powers you or your squad may have. This integrated command window is seamless and the whole combat system is a work of art. It is a perfect blend between shooter and action-RPG.
Visually, Mass Effect 2 is truly a sight to behold on the PC platform – especially if you have a reasonably powerful rig. Like Dragon Age: Origins before it, BioWare has developed their visuals for the PC platform and then backed off where needed on the console variants. The only place where the visuals looked ‘off’ were the pre-rendered cutscenes showing the Normandy, your starship, making use of Mass Relays which are strewn about the galaxy. For those of your who do not know, Mass Relays harness great energies to allow passing starships to jump long distances around the cosmos. In Mass Effect 2’s PC version, these cutscenes have artifacting and pixelization – most likely due to their not being rendered in the high resolution I was running it at. However, even with this small issue the rest of the game looks beautiful.
The game’s score is excellent and features many of the themes from Mass Effect taken to a darker level. Many have said Mass Effect 2 is the ‘[The] Empire Strikes Back’ of the planned game trilogy (yes they are working on Mass Effect 3). Voice over work is top-notch, with many of the first game’s cast returning and reprising their roles along with a lot of new voices, including Martin Sheen (The Final Countdown) and Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix Trilogy). In-game audio effects are crisp and really ‘pop’, especially when the action gets heated – machine gun noises, biotic power hums, and people grunt and yell their battle calls. Equally-impressive are the more reserved audio effects such as the ambient noises of the Normandy when you walk about its many rooms in-between missions.
The overall gameplay is a lot like the first one in that, once you get the gist of the story, you are thrown into a large and open galaxy where you go from system to system. You can explore, recruit people for your crew, and various other types of missions. Mass Effect 2 features some new aspects to the gameplay, such as fuel management. In sectors and systems you will manually ‘pilot’ the Normandy from location to location by clicking and holding with your left mouse button. In-system travel does not cost you fuel but if you travel from system to system within a sector you will burn fuel. This fuel can be replenished at fuel depots, usually located by the sector’s Mass Relay. You will also mine planets by manually scanning them from orbit. Launching probes to a scanned area will grab minerals from which you can use to build technologies on your ship.
One very daunting fact about Mass Effect 2 is that nearly every choice you make during the game will affect its ultimate outcome. It is possible to have every member of your crew, including Shepard, killed in the final confrontation. In this case, you will NOT be able to import the character into Mass Effect 3! It is also possible, albeit VERY difficult, to lose no one in the final assault. The re-playability based on all of these various choices is huge and between checking out all the ‘what-ifs’ as well as the upcoming DLC planned for the game, it is easy to think we will still be playing Mass Effect 2 in some form by time Mass Effect 3 is released.
One area where Mass Effect 2 is lacking is in its choice of weapons. New to the series is a special heavy weapons slot in which you can equip a ‘big gun’ – this can be anything from a grenade launcher to a particle beam cannon. These special weapons do not get reloaded very often so it is important to save them for the big fights. While BioWare has added the sub-machine gun weapon type, your overall choice of weapons per category is very limited. Thankfully, you will be able to upgrade the various weapon types by researching new technologies throughout the game.
The only other part of the game I took issue with was its ‘big reveal’ which, as I stated early, I will not spoil. While I am sure it was intended to come off as cool and ominous, the way the camera is angled and audio come off it just seemed like I was watching some bad B-movie. Even the line said by Shepard during the reveal is corny. Thankfully, the final battle is still fun despite the cornball reveal and I thoroughly enjoyed the finale. After you complete the game, you are given the option to start over with your character having all the items and experience that you ended with or just continuing to explore the cosmos – getting ready for the DLC and just seeing if the decisions you made throughout the game paid off.
Mass Effect 2 is an incredible experience. It is just enough shooter for the shooter fans and just enough RPG for the RPG fans. BioWare has really outdone themselves and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the crew of the Normandy next time. Even though it is still only January, Mass Effect 2 is easily my game of the year thus far.
*Disclosure: BioWare/EA provided GamingShogun with a copy of the PC version of Mass Effect 2 to review over the course of several days.
Square Enix Europe and Avalanche Studios have released a ‘Pre-Order Trailer’ for their upcoming Just Cause 2. The trailer shows off all the goodies you will get for pre-ordering the game, which is due out March 26th, as well as features a lot of humor – just wait until the end of the trailer. For those of you not wanting to wait through the trailer, if you pre-order the game you will receive: An agency hovercraft, a signature pistol, special assault rifle, classic car, and a parchute featuring a skull logo.
The buddy flick genre of video games started off with Mario and Luigi and in the modern day setting Salem and Rios have taken the spotlight. The Army of Two series is back to blow some things up and that’s exactly where this game starts off.
STORY:
The big problem with The 40th Day is its lack of story. Salem and Rios are in Shanghai when everything goes wrong. The whole city is blown to smithereens by a madman. That is pretty much the extent of the story. I suppose that the game is focusing more on the action but you really have no idea why you are there and why this horrible situation is happening. As you move throughout the game you can collect radios which fill in the gaps a bit but still leave you sitting and wondering ‘Why am I doing this?’ If you are looking for an epic tale to be a part of then this game is probably not for you. The story just seemed too short and I played through the entire single player experience in about four hours. The game doesn’t feel rushed at all, it just doesn’t have a lot of meat to it.
With that being said the relationship of Salem and Rios is one of the game’s highlights. This is a bromance at it’s finest. As you play through the game and, especially at the end, you get the feeling that these guys are the best of friends. There are some tough decisions a long the way and you can even bear hug each other to up the morale. There is a point in the game where you have to prove your friendship and that’s about as nail biting as it gets.
GAMEPLAY:
The 40th Day is another third-person shooter with a friend attached at the hip. Button layouts are easy to use and I didn’t have any problems figuring it all out. What I did love about the controls is how easy it was to jump right in there and start the action. Compared to the previous game, the AI of your partner is much improved. By using the d-pad you can tell your partner where to go as well as if you want him to draw some ‘aggro’ (which is the game’s term for drawing enemy attention). I thought this system was fairly easy to use and never encountered one error with it. EA deserves some real kudos for focusing on the buddy system, making sure there were little to no bugs in the finished product.
Salem and Rios are all about packing a huge punch and in this game there is tons of ‘punch’ to choose from. The amount of customization in this game is really incredible and addicting. Right from the start you are able to customize your masks and even use your own designs via the game’s website. As you play through the game you earn cash to use on the black market for gun upgrades. What’s great is that the game really doesn’t take the the various weapons that seriously. Feel like buying a gold plated sniper rifle with a Pepsi can as a silencer? Oh, you can do that and whole lot more. You can literally spend an hour sitting in the customization menu planning out which look or stats you want. With three weapon slots, and grenades, you can pack some serious heat.
Something new to the series is what EA calls ‘morality situations’. Throughout the game you will be presented with certain situations where you need to make a choice. Each choice will have a different outcome, good or bad, and can affect how things play out. After each choice is made you are presented with a graphic novel-style cut scene showing you what happened due to this choice. This was a really great addition to the series however they are too few and far between to make an impact. It’s a great plot device and there needed to be more of them in Army of Two: The 40th Day.
As far as the combat goes it’s all fun but fairly standard if you are use to third-person shooters. You can use almost every object in the game to duck behind for cover or even steal riot shields from your enemies. It almost felt as some points like this was a coin-op game as it is just waves of baddies coming for you until you clear a certain number of dead. This was a little bit taxing but the gameplay in itself made for a fun shooter that is good to pick up and play – especially with a buddy. If you go into the gameplay only expecting that then you can have some quality fun with a friend. As with most titles these days the camera can work against you so be careful when you get in sticky situations.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
The graphics in The 40th Day were very decent. We reviewed the Xbox 360 version and did not find any ‘weird’ screen-tearing or framing issues. The complete destruction of Shanghai was beautiful in terms of its detail and really drove home the chaos taking place in the city. There is one level where people are falling from the sky and that actually made me cringe a bit! With this level of destruction, there is tons of blood everywhere so this is definitely a M-rated game. The levels don’t vary much in looks and that would be the only negative I have about the graphics. It would have been nice to see a bit more than just an alley or courtyard that you happened upon. I do have to say that the zoo level was very impressive.
The sound in The 40th day was pretty typical for a action game. Explosions were loud and the screams of the dying were everywhere. I encountered no weird sound artifacts and was pretty pleased throughout – though the generic enemy grunt sounds did get a bit repetitive. There are only so many times I can hear a grunt say ‘Get down!’
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Although short on story, Army Of Two: The 40th Day is a very enjoyable game. Playing the game by yourself is fun but this title is really meant to be enjoyed with a friend. The 40th Day is an exciting experience that could easily pass for a Hollywood action/buddy flick. I highly recommend you take this one for a spin and hope that EA fleshes out the story a bit more in Salem and Rios’ next adventure.
Namco Bandai has released a new dev diary for their upcoming action-shooter, Dead to Rights: Retribution. Called ‘Abbey Road’, this dev diary showcases the recording of the game’s musical score while at the Abbey Road studios in the UK.
We first saw Bayonetta in action at a private demo in SEGA’s 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo booth. The game looked stunning and centered mainly around watching a raven-haired witch’s rear-end, clad in black leather, glisten as she walked around shooting things with a super-model’s swagger. A year and change later and we now have our very own copy of the full version of Bayonetta and a review to boot!
(Notice they have turned down the ‘glisten’ in the game’s final release)
Bayonetta is the heroine of the tale, a witch who awoke twenty years past in a coffin at the bottom of a lake with no memory of who she was. At the start of the game she is an agent working for none other than Hell itself. The religious themes in the game are very palpable, even by disguising the name of Hell by calling it ‘Inferno’ and Heaven as ‘Paradiso’. The basic enemy Bayonetta will fight are called ‘affinities’, but you may know them better as ‘angels’. Only, in Bayonetta, angels are these winged creatures who resemble the crazed hybridization of a human being and a vulture. In fact, most of the creatures from Paradiso are grotesque in some way and the game’s most human-looking characters are from Inferno. Is the director, Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya trying to tell us something about his views on religion? Quite honestly, I don’t know, but I digress as it is worth mentioning if you are of the Christian faith and looking at this title.
As for the rest of us, while many of the characters in Bayonetta may be grotesque, all of them are very beautifully-designed and Bayonetta herself is one of the best-looking females I have ever seen brought to life in a video game. Not only do the game’s various characters look good, but they also sound amazing thanks to some truly excellent voice acting.
If you have ever played a game from the Devil May Cry series, you will feel mostly at home with Bayonetta. Gameplay is controlled by using just a few buttons on the controller and combat combos are pulled off even if you don’t know their sequences most of the time. This is mainly because SEGA has crammed so many possible combos into the game that it is damn-near impossible not to hit one, even accidentally. Combat is spread mostly between Bayonetta’s numerous martial arts moves combines with her four projectile weapons, each attached to one of her limbs. On top of these are her torture and climax attacks, which can do anything from summon an iron maiden to throw your opponent into to transforming Bayonetta’s very long and flowing hair into a gigantic demon to devour them!
Throughout the course of each of the game’s many stages, you will collect numerous items, some power-ups and others just loot to sell at the store. One character, Rodin, will construct new weapons for Bayonetta to make use of as she collects more halos from the dead forces of Paradiso. The game features a number of weapons Bayonetta can use, most of them from the fallen forces of Heaven. Bayonetta’s main non-martial or magical arsenal are her guns.
There are two big issues with Bayonetta. First, there is very little instruction with the game. Due to how simple the controls are, this is not that big of a deal after a while. However, in the game’s opening battles you are not given the tutorial of how combat works and are thrown into the fight without a clue. Of course, you could read the instruction manual but, let’s be honest, who does that anymore? So, if you jump in be prepared for a bit of confusion for a couple levels until the combat tutorial is shown to you.
The second, even bigger issue is the game’s camera system. Bayonetta’s in-game camera gets stuck on objects, is often-times zoomed too far out and sometimes locked at a weird angle for you to get your bearings on what is taking place in the fights. Fights tend to be fast and furious and, coupled with this wonky camera, it’s easy to lose your Witch in the melee – especially with all the particle effects and hair flying about.
Bayonetta reeks of over-the-top style, from a ‘crazy’ Japanese remix of Bart Howard’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ to a heaping amount of the good old-fashioned ultra-violence. Even the voice work, with Bayonetta’s wry-delivery of lines in an English accent is perfect for this title. Throw in some really epic boss battles and the game is truly a sheer-action spectacular to behold.
Overall, SEGA’s Bayonetta is a fun third-person shooter game with easy controls, tons of style, and beautiful visuals that is sure to keep you entertained for a while if you can get past the wonky controls and over-the-top style (to some it may be a bit much – However, I dug it).
DISCLOSURE: SEGA provided GamingShogun.com with an evaluation copy of Bayonetta for this review.
My review of Pandemic Studios’ The Saboteur is bittersweet. At the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Show in Los Angeles, I fell in love with the game as I was given a private showing at the Pandemic suite. There was something about the film noir art style that really grabbed my attention and I could not wait to play it. As time passed and news broke that EA had closed down Pandemic, I was really hoping that it did not cause any problems with The Saboteur’s final release.
STORY:
The story of The Saboteur takes place in Nazi-controlled France and casts you in the role of part-time race car driver, Sean Devlin. Like all tragic heroes, something very traumatic has happened in Sean’s life that he needs to seek revenge for. These are harsh times in the world and Sean has taken his lumps to say the least. He is living in the seedy, yet seemingly-safe world of a brothel where he sits every night drinking away his problems. The Saboteur is definitely a mature-rated game and, with the included DLC code, you can unlock crazy amounts of topless women in the game. It also unlocks more brothels as hiding places as well as the addition of private dances. I have to admit that I never saw the private dances nor where you can get them but I am sure they were there…
The game’s gripping story is its shining-light. When a game makes me want to keep playing just to find out what will happen next in the story, I consider that title worth playing. The Saboteur strayed away from the good guy hero and went down a grittier path with Sean Devlin. You never really knew if what he was doing was right but you knew it was a necessity to get things done. I felt really engaged with most of the characters, going so far as wanting to lash-out, physically, at others. While the ending fell a bit flat, and gave a bit of a tease at a possible sequel, I was very impressed by the entire story as a whole.
GAMEPLAY:
The Saboteur is a mix of Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed. An open-world ready for you to explore and find things to do. If you are familiar with any of the aforementioned titles, The Saboteur’s controls should be pretty easy for you to pick-up. You start out following a set path to further the story but as you play many side-missions open up for you to explore. The great thing about The Saboteur is that there is always something to do. Throughout the city there are Nazi installations for you to destroy which will add money to your wallet. Destroying these locations will keep the surrounding areas clear of Nazi’s, so if you are having problems in a mission head right out and blow up that tower which always seems to snipe you.
There is another advantage to doing these side-missions and that is contraband. Contraband is currency in Nazi-controlled France and can pretty much get you everything from transit papers to new guns. As your stockpile of contraband grows you can purchase all kinds of upgrades from black market dealers. Not only can you purchase weapon upgrades but you can unlock special perks for Devlin. The perk system is an interesting semi-leveling experience added to the game. As you complete certain tasks you will unlock said perks that will upgrade your character. These perks can be anything from a top-tier sniper rifle to a bigger grenade killzone.
Transportation around France comes in the form of a ton of different cars. You can hijack them from just about anyone and, as you take cars, you can bring them back to your garage for storage. I had a lot of fun stealing Nazi transportation just to add it to my collection. As you get going in the game you will have the ability to set any of your cars as a ‘getaway car’ which an in-game NPC is used to have it delivered to you. This is a great feature, especially when you need one of those fast escapes!
Combat in The Saboteur is simple third-person action through and though. You can sneak up behind Nazis and choke them out or come in guns blazing. Be careful though as it is really easy to spring their alarms. There is an interesting disguise element to the game where you can steal Nazi uniforms, however I found this element a waste of time. It didn’t matter if you were wearing a high rank uniform you will still be spotted in about 3 seconds alarming the entire area. I found it much easier to just start blowing everyone away.
The last gameplay element I wanted to touch on was the game’s verticality. Some tasks require you to get up on the rooftops to destroy towers or even to escape the Nazis. This was very easily done, although there seemed to be a general lack of hideout spots. For the most part, I found myself just driving out of the alarm zone or running as fast as I could. It was pretty awesome to zip line into a Nazi camp only to drop and blow everyone away.
The only real issue i have with any of the gameplay is the camera. As with most third-person games, the camera is either your best friend or worst enemy. I found myself fighting with the camera on several occasions only to end up dead. I pray that one day developers will get this mechanic right so it wouldn’t be such a problem.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
The graphics in The Saboteur are fantastic. The city is a living, breathing reality and at times can stir up a bit of emotion depending on what part of it you are in. The landscape is huge, not only going through Paris, but to the German border towns as well. What I loved about The Saboteur’s graphics was the film nore vibe. When you are in a heavily controlled Nazi area you are living in a black and white world with only the red Nazi armbands bleeding through. You can really feel the despair about the city as every day citizens were being harassed. As you complete missions it is like a giant explosion of hope that ripples through the zones turning the landscape to color before your eyes. This was something I was thoroughly impressed with at E3 and I am glad they stuck with it in the game’s development.
The game’s visuals are a double-edged sword, however, as it is also where I feel this game was rushed to retail. While being beautiful overall, I encountered so many graphical glitches that some of them were game ending! Most of the cut-scenes had severe clipping problems where characters would be inside each other or inanimate objects! I encountered a nasty bug several times where, after a mission, every NPC in the game would just simply vanish and I would have to reload. These bugs are unacceptable and show that this game needed some more baking time before release.
The sound in The Saboteur was fantastic. The music of the time is really showcased with the likes of Nina Simone and Ela Fitzgerald blasting over the airwaves as you drive. The city sounds alive as you make your way through it with shouts coming from people or Nazis as you pass-by. Explosions and gun shots were on point and showed a great attention to detail.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The Saboteur is a great game that should be played by any adult gamer looking for an excellent story. While there are some bugs that made the game feel like it was rushed, it is a fitting swan song for Pandemic Studios as we know them. While its not perfect, it is definitely worth the 6 to 8 hours it will take you to finish the journey of Sean Devlin.
DISCLOSURE: Electronic Arts sent us an evaluation copy of The Saboteur for this review.