Atari has announced that their new physics-based puzzle game, The Undergarden, is now available on both Windows PCs and the Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game retails for 800 Microsoft Points (or $9.99) and promises a world of exploration for players to immerse themselves in, free of conflict or the potential of harm.
Archive - 2010
Let’s take a moment to admire the awfulness of this week’s winner of our Worst Box Art of the Week Award (applause). This week’s winner is Remington Super Slam Hunting, which is being developed by Mastiff (Shimano Extreme Fishing, Deer Drive) in cooperation with Remington Arms. While the game is a budget title due out early next year, we can laugh at the box art now. Hunting is usually a solo sport, with many hours of tracking your quarry, running into dead ends, and other annoyances like going to the bathroom outside (perhaps that’s where the game’s subtitle, ‘Outdoor Action’) comes in to play).
Judging by this box art, however, this game looks a lot less about hunting and a lot more about stopping wave after wave of a coordinated, rabid-animal invasion. How else do you explain this mass of animals all charging the two poor hunters at once? Those guys are toast – one is armed with a long rifle and the other a shotgun. If I am going up against all those animals at once I want an M249 or a bazooka – which is, of course, the grizzly bear’s only weakness.
Two items of note in this post – first is that the new GTX-580 GPU has officially been announced today. Nvidia touts this new GPU as the fastest DX11 graphics card on the market thus far. The card is being manufactured by various hardware makers and is retailing for a pretty reasonably $499 to $599 (considering it is a brand-new GPU).
The second bit of business comes from the talented guys at EVGA, who have released the best GPU launch video that I have ever seen. Kudos to the crew over there who are responsible for this one.
Disney Interactive Studios and Junction Point have released a new trailer for their upcoming Epic Mickey, showing off how theme parks such as Disneyland were integrated into the shattered world of their upcoming actioner. Epic Mickey is due out on November 30th in North America and is being developed exclusively for the Nintendo Wii platform.
Generally speaking, first-person shooters are not a gaming genre handled well by Eastern developers. The most recent example of this axiom would be Tecmo Koei’s Gears of War-wannabe, Quantum Theory, but there are a ton more which came before it to point fingers at and march back to the game store to get your money back. Thankfully, Vanquish from SEGA and Platinum Games (Bayonetta), is NOT one of these. In fact, despite some especially bad voice acting and character dialog, it is actually a lot of fun!
Vanquish takes place in the future… A future fraught with global tension as the planet has become seriously over-populated. So over-populated, in fact, that the United States has built a gigantic space station as its 51st state (its that big, people – seriously). The game starts off with a bang as it thrusts you into the middle of an invasion from Russian extremists looking to use the space station as a weapon powerful enough to destroy a city! Why they have to go to all the trouble to do this – gathering space ships, thousands upon thousands of soldiers (organic and robotic), building and purchasing weapons, to any millions of other logistical issues that would have to be in place is beyond me. It would be far simpler to just deliver nuclear ordinance to a city (or, at least, attempt to do so) – hell we have seen situations in our own recent history where a low-tech attack can be far more effective. These extremists are just plain over-complicating the matter. Now, to be fair, in the context of the game their plan is reasonably successful, but still!
The gameplay in Vanquish is nothing you haven’t seen before in one form or another. Most of the run, gun, and cover systems are fairly standard and are very functional inside the game world. However, the two main features touted by Platinum Games regarding the gameplay are the abilities to slide at incredibly-fast speeds via booster rockets and the ability to slow-down time a la Max Payne (or any of the time-slowing clones to come since). Admittedly, both of these systems are cool and visually-interesting, however it is nothing we haven’t seen before in some fashion. That is really an issue when reviewing this one as, technically, the gameplay is somewhat re-hashed from numerous past titles. Couple this tried-and-true gameplay with the interesting boss battles, fast-paced combat, and cool set-pieces – it works!
The game’s boss battles are all very thrilling experiences. The bosses you will run across are all varied, interesting characters, ranging from gigantic robots to more ‘un-realistic’ chaps with seemingly supernatural abilities. Overall, these fights are one of Vanquish’s saving graces and, despite many bosses having a special ability to kill you in one shot, are fun!
Overall, the game’s combat is a cavalcade of action, with battle waging all over the place, not just in your direct line of fire. Vanquish does a good job of immersing you into a larger conflict. You will simultaneously fight enemies en masse from above, in front, and below you! Additionally, many of the game’s levels focus around very cool set-pieces like crumbling bridges and wasted our urban areas offer good variety to make use of the somewhat ‘been-done’ gameplay mechanics.
Visually, Vanquish is a pretty game to oogle. Not the best I have seen – but very pretty. Pretty enough that, during many of the game’s cooler levels, you will take your fair share of impacts from wanting to look around rather than fight the Russian threat. Sound design and game audio are good as well, with the glaring exception being its horrific voice acting. I am still not sure why Eastern developers think that just because we Americans love our share of violent video games, that we don’t also like to hear believable characters every so often. The acting in Vanquish is a step up from that seen in the seminal movie – ahem – ‘classic’, Troll 2.
That is not Vanquish’s biggest issue, however. The biggest problem with Vanquish is that its singleplayer campaign runs about six to eight hours in length. Normally in a first-person shooter of this type, that would not be an issue. With Vanquish, however, you get no multiplayer modes to increase the game’s lifespan. No doubt, if the game performs well they will make DLC packs but, as the mk1 product stands – no multiplayer! Maybe I have become a bit price stodgy of late, but I think that if a game is not a 100% gripping experience un-necessary of multiplayer features, it should be a bit easier on a gamer’s pocketbook – not a full price title.
Overall, Vanquish is a fun, albeit ‘been-done’ shooter that is worth your valuable time if you are a fan of over-the-top action and shoot ’em ups. If you are looking for a lasting experience with some multiplayer, you will not find it here. Vanquish would be a great choice for a game rental or even purchase when the price comes down slightly.
The Belmonts are back to their monster hunting ways and, this time, you are in the boots of Gabriel Belmont. Your wife has been slain and you are up against a huge battle with the unearthly forces known as the ‘Lords Of Shadow’. Throughout your adventure you will meet a cast of characters, including one voiced by Patrick Stewart, to help fill in story gaps. While the game’s story is solid, there are times it feels a bit confusing. In fact, there are several points in the game where the player could get lost not really knowing why they are doing what they are set out to do. Thankfully the great action in the game pulls the player back into the story and ties it up nicely. The story while not the deepest written story is still a great spin on the Castlevania franchise.
GAMEPLAY:
Imagine putting God Of War, Uncharted, and Hideo Kojima’s games in a salad bowl and then tossing them around. Do so and you will pretty much get Lords Of Shadow to serve up on your entertainment dish. The gameplay takes all the great elements from those hit games and gives them to the player in a Castlevania box. Third-person adventuring awaits you as the controls sticks move Gabriel and the camera as it would in any other in the genre. The player uses the buttons to perform jumps and attacks with the awesome Castklevania spiked whip. Remember the old days of firing off daggers and items you pick up off the ground? Those items are still here and can be upgraded via in-game menus. The great thing about the action in Lords of Shadow is that the gameplay is its character advancement. As you progress and kill monsters, you gain the ability to upgrade moves in your diary. There are certain points in the game where you come across brotherhood tomes that upgrade your physical weapons to epic proportions.
The gameplay in Lords Of Shadow is challenge at times with a ton of attacking and dodging your opponents in a frantic manner. Throw in Uncharted-like climbing and God Of War-like puzzles and you have a great all-around action game. Also fun are the boss battles, which are HUGE and provide for some anxiety-filled moments. The only downside of the gameplay is the camera. I pray to the heavens above that developers will find a way to make a 3rd person game without a messed-up, fixed camera system. There were so many moments in the game that I wanted to punch my TV because the camera was getting locked in directions where I could not fight properly.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
Lords Of Shadow is, hands-down, a beautiful game. It shows off the power of the PlayStation 3 and provides the player with some seriously beautiful landscapes. There were many moments in the game where you will like you are in some sort of cinematic movie, just staring at the environment. From dirty, rain-filled streets to lush forests – each area comes alive and is a pleasure to be immersed in. The character models are the equally-great and really drive home emotion via the characters faces. At times, Gabriel is seriously disturbed and you could feel the trauma that he is going through just through his expressions. The beautiful graphics do come with a price though. There were several moments in the game that suffered from huge FPS lag issues. There was one spot where things almost slowed to a halt and I thought I was going to have to turn off the system. These FPS bugs were very common in very graphically-intense areas.
The sound design in Lords Of Shadows is very well done and the voice acting plays a huge part in its story development, so adding star power like Patrick Stewart really helped. Aside from Sir Jean-Luc, the other actors also did a great job and helped make the story believable. Environment sounds and effects were spot-on, adding to the feel of being in some really tense situations. No sound errors were found during my entire play test.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Even if you are new to the series, Lords Of Shadow is an excellent reboot to the Castlevania name. It takes a different spin on things and provides some really high action moments that will keep you on the edge of your seat. While not without it’s bugs, Lords Of Shadow is worth shelling out some hard-earned dough for.
Electronic Arts and Crytek have released some new screenshots from their upcoming shooter, Crysis 2. Crysis 2 is due out on March 22nd, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC platform. Unlike the first game, most of the gameplay in the sequel is set in the urban sprawl of New York City.
*Thanks to Devil-King for the tip on this submission!
Checkout the images, After the Break!
THQ Wireless and Vertigore Games have announced that their upcoming Star Wars augmented reality title, Star Wars: Falcon Gunner, will be out within the next three weeks on the Apple App Store for the iOS platform. The game uses the onboard hardware camera to set the stage for Tie Fighter blasting action.
Activision has released a new trailer for their upcoming car-crushing racer, Monster Jam: Path of Destruction. The game is due out on November 9th for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 and PSP platforms. It features fan favorite trucks like Gravedigger, Maximum Destruction, and more.
Disney Interactive has released a new trailer today for their upcoming Epic Mickey. The trailer goes over many of the characters found in the game, which is due out on November 30th for the Nintnedo Wii platform.