Ubisoft has released a new trailer for their upcoming Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars 3DS. The game is a tactical actioner and is due out on March 27th, 2011 which is also the launch date of the Nintendo 3DS in North America. The game features a similar UI to that of ‘Fire Emblem’, but with new enhancements to gameplay such as cover and elevation checks.
Looks like the crack and hack community has scored once again, hacking the Nintendo 3DS portable handheld system only a day after being launched in Japan. This video below shows the hack in action, allowing the system to play pirated games. The Nintendo 3DS will hit North America on March 27th for $249.99.
Crytek and Electronic Arts have released a new trailer for their upcoming shooter, Crysis 2. ‘Be Invisible’ shows off some of the nanosuit’s cloaking ability in combat. Crysis 2 is due out on March 22nd, 2011.
Atari has released a new ‘Bugs and Weapons’ trailer for the upcoming re-imagining of the classic title, Yars Revenge. The downloadable title will hit the Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC platforms this Spring. This re-imagining sees the player as a humanoid female encased in a bio-mechanical suit.
Epic Games has announced Unreal Engine 3 support for Sony’s upcoming Next Generation Portable (NGP) entertainment system. Developers may now license Epic’s award-winning engine technology for the upcoming NGP. Epic Games’ founder Tim Sweeney presented a real-time preview of a large, outdoor environment running on NGP at PlayStation Meeting 2011 last month in Tokyo, demonstrating a sweeping panorama full of particle systems, animating characters and atmospheric lighting effects.
‘We see NGP as a true game-changer with a perfect combination of performance, innovative controls and gamer appeal that make it truly a high-end console in your pocket,’ said Sweeney. ‘We were very proud to be onstage with SCE to give the world just a taste of what Unreal Engine 3 can do on NGP,’ said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. ‘NGP raises the bar for the performance of handheld platforms with its multi-core GPU and shader-based, multi-core CPU. This makes Unreal Engine 3 a particularly advantageous fit for NGP. Furthermore, multiple UE3 licensees are already working with NGP, some of which have indicated they intend to release their games for the platform’s launch.’
The NGP is to be released later this year, during the holiday season.
Gemini Rue takes place on the planet known as Barracus. Deep in the throngs of gang war and secret societies, you are assassin turned detective Azriel Odin. Azriel’s purpose is to find his missing brother and nothing is going to get in his way from finishing that task. A long the way you will meet a very large cast of characters including the strange test subject Delta Six. If finding his missing brother wasn’t difficult enough, Azriel has to deal with his former gang who are shoring up their defenses, waiting for his attack.
The story in Gemini Rue is what will attract any lover of old school adventure games. I felt like I was back in my teen years playing such classic titles as Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle. The main focus in Gemini Rue is transporting the player into a deep world and introducing them to characters they can engage in. The style of the story fits well with movies like Blade Runner and the noir theme doesn’t seem pushed on the player at all. Players will care what happens to the game’s characters and that is a great benchmark for any game that focuses on story.
GAMEPLAY:
The game mechanics in Gemini Rue will be familiar to anyone who has had the pleasure of playing point and click adventure titles. You click to move your character to the parts of the area you wish to explore and select items when they are highlighted. This makes Gemini Rue not only easy to pick up for experienced players but easily-learned by new players to the genre. As with all adventure games, the inventory system is crucial to the gaming experience. The inventory system is very similar to the one used in Full Throttle and makes the combining of items very easy.
The one thing that is kind of strange in the game mechanics of Gemini Rue is the shooting component. There are portions in the game where it turns into a shooter and it just throws everything off. While there is nothing wrong technically with the concept, it does not work with the overall flow of the game. The player is dead set on point and clicking only to be thrown into having to use the keyboard to awkwardly shoot things on screen. I remember back in the day having to write down a ton of information to help me in my gaming adventures. Gemini Rue fixes this problem with an in game system that stores all needed information and contacts. This was a great new addition to adventure games as it keeps the players engaged with what is going on in the game.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
While you wont see next gen graphics with Gemini Rue, it is the nostalgia factor that makes the player feel at home. As with most adventure titles the graphics are pixilated with beautiful painted backdrops. The movement animations are a bit choppy and really transport the player back to gaming’s golden age. Well done by the developers for giving the player the entire adventure game package. During my play time I experienced no bugs or crashes win regards to graphics.
The surprising part of Gemini Rue is the sound. In most adventure games you would only be treated with 8 bit music and sound effects. Gemini Rue ups the game a bit and delivers voice acting to the characters in game. Adding voice acting further engrosses the player in the story and adds for a fantastic edition to the gaming experience.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Gemini Rue is a quality game and, while not made by a big development house, it is something Shogunites are going to want to pick up. Those wanting to step back in time to the adventure games of past and those new players who never got to experience it will find a quality title. Gemini Rue is an engrossing story with an easy to use game mechanics system that I recommend for all players. Go out there and give it a shot!
This is an old-school RPG, which means gameplay requires a lot more patience than many modern games. You click on everything in a room to see if you can pick it up or move it to find a clue. You use the eye icon to click on everything in sight and most of the information is pointless. You have to figure out what item to click on before you talk to someone to get the information you need. You pick up everything the game will let you but you have to time it right otherwise you could suffer severe consequences. At the end of the game your inventory will probably have a bunch of stuff you never needed but you had to pick it up because maybe that bowl would be needed an hour or two later into the game and the only way to pass that point is starting back at the beginning. When you first start playing you start back at the beginning several times, back in the day you wouldn’t have been surprised if you had to lose an hour of playtime or more because you missed a book on a shelf or forgot a spoon hanging in a kitchen. You save after just about every thing you did (a habit I still follow today) and starting back at your last save point a couple dozen times to try to figure out what you had to do next was just part of the game. It can be frustrating and even boring to some degree but once you figure out what you are supposed to do next when you haven’t been given the slightest clue what you are supposed to be doing there is a really strong sense of accomplishment. It requires a great deal of patience and attention to detail that has been phased out of most games over the years. It also helps to develop strong problem solving skills and patience in getting things accomplished which are pretty good skills to have in general. Controls are point and click, with a pull down menu to choose different actions such as look, walk, touch, etc.
Graphics/Audio:
Though cleaned up like an old print of a film, the game retains its graphic style and sounds which makes it a fun blast back to the past. The graphics are so low resolution that a lot of gamer rigs will actually not be able to get down to the recommended level of resolution but I found getting close is good enough. If you try to play the game without lowering the res you will either find yourself unable to see the game screen or it will be in a box smaller than a PSP screen which makes it kinda hard to see and difficult to click on things. It is nice to see the hand painted backgrounds and portraits, this was obviously a labor of love, which maintains the graphic feel of the original.
Playtime/Cost:
Playtime will drastically vary depending on each person’s decisions and problem solving skills. The potential time is enormous for someone who isn’t used to the game. But since it is completely free it is a game to try out and if you don’t like it you are out nothing but time and if you love it then you can fill lots of hours with it.
Last Call:
This game is a gift, not just because it is free but because it gives older gamers a chance to relive their roots and younger gamers the opportunity to experience gaming history. I recommend everyone get it to try it out, but I particularly would point it out to parents to help their children learn the consequences of actions and improve problem solving skills and patience, which are three things no person can have too much of!
*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.
Rockstar Games has unveiled the official box art for their upcoming crime-thriller, L.A. Noire. Due out on May 17th, L.A. Noire puts players into the shoes of a detective tracking down a serial killer.
Checkout all the humongous box art, After the Jump!
First person shooter? Racing? Adventure? Puzzle platformer? What type of game do you want to play? What type of game do you want to make? These are the questions that LittleBigPlanet 2 asks you. In the most basic sense, this is not a game. This is a mighty tool to let you create and experience whatever you want. And to top it all off, Media Molecule tacked one of the best platform games of the past few years on to the disc.
The story mode in LBP2 is fun. One of the best games I’ve played in a quite a while. The (very loose) story present is this: All of CraftWorld is being threatened by the Negativitron and it’s up to you to join with the Alliance to save the day. Well… Maybe it should read more like, ‘All of blah blah… Forget it. Here’s a bunch of levels designed to show off the new crap we put n the game. Have fun!’
Story isn’t so much LittleBigPlanet’s strong suit, but hey, you’re not buying this game for the story. Mario games rarely have much more of a story than ‘The princess is in another castle’ and they are the best platformers of all time. The story mode of LBP2 shows off some the best platforming levels of the last ten years all while teasing the sorts of games you’ll be able to create with a little time and effort. Throughout the game’s core 30 levels you’ll ride bees, shoot cupcakes out of your head, and grapple-hook through flaming forests. Each world shows off a different gameplay mechanic and I can’t wait to see what the community creates given these new toys.
LittleBigPlanet 2, like the first game, comes with the promise of user-generated content. Early adopters of the game have been lucky as it is backwards compatible with all 3 million or so levels created so far for the first game (along with any unlock able content you may have earned in the first title.) The search tools are far more streamlined this time around. Searches lead to content lists, opening a level can link to levels created by the same user, which can further link to their personal favorites and so on. My favorite part of the search tool is the new Media Molecule Favorites list, levels the developers themselves have chosen to show off.
Creating these levels is no small feat, but it Is a little user-friendlier than the first game around. The first game seemed to have endless demo videos to watch before you were allowed to think about touching an edit tool.LittleBigPlanet 2 does away with that, instead opting for a few basic tutorials before you can choose to either continue watching demo content or jump right in and try it for yourself.
Some of the better tools at your disposal this time around are the all new SackBots. These are programmable bots that can be used as enemies, NPCs, or heck… I don’t know… backup dancers? Their behavior is up to you.
Levels can now be linked together to build a game as large as your imagination will let you. Your levels are no longer confined to simple platforming. The intent behind LittleBigPlanet 2 is to give one the ability to create entire games of wildly varying genres. You can do this to your heart’s content with the ability to record your own dialogue, change camera angles at your pleasure, program the behavior of different tools, etc. For a game built around 2D platforming, I’ve started to see FPS-based levels being uploaded. This content generating freedom works well enough now and will only grow with time as users get more creative and crazy.
I’ve got little to no complaints about this title. Jumping is still a little floaty and shifting between foreground, middle, and background can be a tad off at times. Other than that, there is plenty of fun to be had here. Whether you’re purchasing this just to jump in and make your own games or if you’re more my speed and are looking forward to endless amounts of content waiting your consumption, this games has something for everyone. Personally, I’m going back online to play through some LittleBigPlanet recreations of The Human Centipede.
A new entry on the Australian Classifications Board website suggests that there is a video game tie-in of some kind being created by Konami and Saber Interactive (TimeShift, Inversion). Not much is known about the game save for its publisher, developer, and that it is listed in the ‘Computer Games’ category (also, they rated it MA15+ for strong violence)! Battle: LA is due out in theaters on March 11th, 2011. We have put emails in to both Konami and Relativity Media for comment.
*UPDATE – We received a simple, yet very polite, ‘No comment, but thank you for checking in.’ from Relativity Media. We will update this post when we hear back from Konami.
LINK: ACB Listing
