EA Sports has announced that they will be hosting a live, streaming event showing off their upcoming title, SSX, on June 29 at 11am PT. The event will be streamed live through their Facebook page and USTREAM, so head on over to Facebook to find out more. SSX is due out early next year.
Activision has announced that the Cabela’s series will return with Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2012 – due out on September 27, 2011. This edition of the game will use the Top Shot Elite gaming peripheral and will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii platforms.
“The pairing of Activision and Cabela’s continues to result in the best hunting games on the market and this year’s Big Game Hunter is no exception,” said Jordan Mauer, Senior Director of Marketing, Activision Publishing. “Featuring upgradeable gear, game-changing freedom of movement and realistic animal behavior, Cabela’s Big Gamer Hunter 2012 is a great addition to any gamer’s library.”
Ripper takes a good long look at Sony Online Entertainment’s DC Universe Online and reviews it in this article, after the jump! Take note that this article was delayed due to the PSN downtime.
ZEN Studios has announced the Captain America Marvel Pinball table downloadable content just in time for the movie which is also set in the classic World War II environment inspired by Ed Brubaker’s Captain America, 65th Anniversary Special. The table has Captain America, Bucky and members of the resistance movement the Howling Commandos fighting it out with Baron Zemo, Red Skull and even The Sleeper as the Captain and his crew storm Zemo’s Castle.
Atmosphere: When it comes to pinball machine atmosphere there needs to be a combination of animated entertainment and real life physics if the machine is going to work. And just like most of the Marvel Pinball games it manages to do just that. It has animated mini-games to keep it entertaining but the ball, flippers and ramps all follow real life pinball machine physics. Add to this a variety of super hero musical scores and this game is instantly entertaining and can appeal to the hardcore pinball wizard and the Marvel video game fan.
Graphics And Sound:
The game simulates a pinball machine very well showing outstanding graphics but at the same time when a part of the machine comes to life and performs actions outside the realm of reality all the graphics are beautifully detailed and very realistic. You see Captain America block Zemo’s Death Ray with his shield then watch as a very realistic looking pinball starts hitting bumpers and flippers causing the characters to react. The graphics are well done for a video game and excellently done for a pinball machine right down to the details on the inside walls of the table and the jeep and barbed wire resting at the bottom behind the flippers. Other wonderful graphic details include the ball launch as a machine gun barrel and periodically Zemo just walks onto the table from out of frame. The sounds of the game all add to the setting too with bumpers that sound like rifle fire to ramps that sound like airplane flybys this game doesn’t miss an opportunity to wow the player with a sight or a sound. Even the ball lost voice changes as does the phrasing to keep the game fresh while playing addictively over and over.
Gameplay:
To a certain degree gameplay on all pinball machines that follow the rules of physics are all the same. However this game forces the balls, bumpers and flippers to follow the rules of physics and just has fun with the rest of it. And this introduces the idea of mini-games which are there to keep the game fun and challenging and give the player a break from the regular play to try what amounts to video games inserted into their pinball table. In one of the video games the Captain America figure standing on the table jumps up on a platform and starts blocking balls coming at him with his shield. Another has him blocking Zemo’s Death Ray with his shield and losing his strength which he recovers with the players help by scoring bumper hits. Each game involves Captain America’s figure on the machine to come to life and fight one of his foes in one way or another while you help with your flippers or the ball. I could go right down the list of all the special mini games on the board because I had a blast finding them all but it is far more fun for players to be surprised and find them themselves rather than be a spoiler.
A Good Addition?:
The Marvel Pinball tables all work off the same physics design for the principle table play it is just the extra animated games and the table design itself that make them different. If you like a table crowded with things to do this is probably going to be one of your favorites if not becoming your favorite over all the other tables. I am still a huge fan of the Blade table but I think this one easily outshined the Fantastic Four and Wolverine tables and actually was not only a good addition to the set but improved it.
Add Another Token:
The table and the whole game in general also includes multiplayer in two ways, hot seat and online. Those who have never heard of hot seat multiplayer the idea is pretty simple, someone sits in the “hot seat” in front of the television, plays player 1’s ball then hands the controller off to someone else putting them in the “hot seat” as player 2 for up to four players. The online is pretty straight forward too, they have a game lobby, you log into it and wait for enough players to match up and away you go into a game.
Cost/Playtime:
The table is going to cost about $3, which when you consider how many hours of play you can get from it by yourself yet alone playing your buddies or making it a party game is a very good deal. Heck at that price you might as well add on any other tables you don’t have.
Last Call:
Captain America Marvel Pinball Table is coming out at a perfect time to get people interested in the franchise again with the movie right around the corner but even if the movie wasn’t on it’s way this new table is an excellent addition to the Marvel Pinball set and is a whole lot of fun while keeping true to the physics of a mean pinball.
The Valley of Death DLC pack is now available for Codemasters Operation Flashpoint: Red River. In celebration of this launch, they have released a new trailer for the DLC pack, which features eight new Fireteam Engagements playable in single-player or in four player online co-op. Two new Combat Sweep missions, two new CSAR missions, two new Last Stand missions and two new Rolling Thunder missions are set across stunning new locales.
Crytek has released their highly-awaited DirectX 11 update as well as Patch 1.9 and the optional High-Rez texture pack for Crysis 2 on the Windows PC platform. Also, checkout the DirectX 11 trailer, just released today, after the jump!
v1.9 Changes
FEAR 3 developers, Day 1 Studios, have released a 2 page-long tips & tricks sheet for their new horror-shooter, FEAR 3.
1. Maximize your score by fulfilling multiple challenge requirements, playing on higher difficulties, and completing each level as fast as you can. Use your special abilities often and combine the challenges to make sure you maximize each kill.
2. Exploration is crucial – search each level extensively for hidden ammo caches, psychic link bodies, and the all-important Alma doll. The psychic links and Alma dolls appear in random locations, so make sure you fully explore on each playthrough.
3. When playing co-op, psychic links can be shared or stolen. If you’re looking to set an individual high score, steal them. If you want to set a team high score, share them. Even though you only get 750 points for psychic links, since you both receive the reward it adds a total of 1,500 to your team score.
4. Ranking-up improves various stats including things like ammo capacity, health, and slow-mo. Maximizing your Rank is essential to play on the Insane difficulty. Replaying a level with a higher rank also makes it easier to set a high score and compete for the top position on the leaderboards.
5. The ranks are determined by your total score and the perks are universal in main campaign, co-op, and multiplayer. If you are having trouble in one mode, go spend some time in another to rank up and then try again.
6. The Arc Beam weapon reflects off of walls and floors to hit nearby enemies, and can hit more than one at a time – very useful when Armacham Soldiers are hiding behind cover.
7. The Phase Caster is one of the toughest enemies in F.E.A.R. 3. Make sure you kill him as soon as possible. The Phase Caster will keep calling in reinforcements as you take them out.
8. The Scavengers can be difficult for Fettel to defeat. One method to quickly dispatch them is to levitate the enemy, get close, and push melee for the instant kill. At the same time, if there are multiple Scavengers, you can always suspend one while killing another with the stun blast.
9. In multiplayer mode ‘F**king Run!,’ sending a teammate ahead with a Riot Shield is a good way to add an extra layer of protection to the rest of the team.
10. Also in ‘F**king Run!’ multiplayer mode, the slide tackle is your strongest asset. Not only does it keep you moving forward, but it also takes out enemies.
11. Plan ahead when playing multiplayer mode ‘Contractions.’ Storing all of your ammo on the top level of your safe house will take longer, but pays off in later waves.
12. Don’t try to stay in one body when playing multiplayer mode ‘Soul King.’ Body to body possession is a strategic part of the mode. You can escape other players by jumping from body to body across large portions of the maps. If you’re going to die, possess a new body with full health. If you see an enemy getting the drop on the competitor, possess it and get the kill.
13. Multiplayer mode ‘Soul King’ is designed to be competitive all the way until the end. The last 30 seconds of each round are the most hectic and critical. You should try to stay in second or third place so that you can sweep in for victory in the closing seconds of the round by killing the King.
14. In multiplayer mode ‘Soul Survivor,’ getting a kill while in Last Stand will revive you. However, ammo is limited, so try not to use your Last Stand handgun ammo unless absolutely necessary. Have squad members revive you whenever possible.
15. The “We’ll Try Again Tomorrow” achievement / trophy is easiest to get in the first 3 waves of The Commute multiplayer map.
Colossai Studios and SimBin Studios have released a brand new turn based strategy game into the wild, named Storm: Frontline Nations. Storm: Frontline Nations is based in today’s Europe and North Africa political world. Let’s get this out in the open first; I have never been a good strategy player, whether it is turn based or real time. I love the plotting and the moving of massive armies, but I can never get the handle of gathering all the resources needed while watching my borders. While Storm: Frontline Nations makes resource gathering a breeze, there is so much going on a player can feel overwhelmed. So, I’ll try to break this game down for you and give you the perspective of a total noob when it comes to these types of games.
Story
Storm: Frontline Nations story is dependent on the nation you select at the beginning, but the end result is the same, complete and total domination in Europe and North Africa. The game utilizes only these areas for it’s campaign setting, and focuses solely on the nations that can be found here, with the exception of the United States. The U.S. begins their campaign in Egypt trying to put down a revolution and keeping our man in power. Yes, either the guys at Colossai Studios have been paying attention to recent world events, or they have one hell of a crystal ball that they used during development. I, of course, tried to play the campaign as the Americans, but struggled even getting into Egypt to start the campaign, so I switched over to the Russians in order to start off with much more resources and see how the game worked.
After each turn you take, the rest of the world takes their turns. It can be just as interesting to see what happens to the other countries while you are waiting for your turn then it is when you are actually playing. For instance, during my campaign, the Germans decided to repeat history and invade France, with the same results. I had to get a spy to Paris, Germany in order to plot my attack on the German forces. Once again, Germany proved that they could take France, but not hold it.
At the end of the day, each campaign’s story line will change, depending on your moves and the moves of the other players. This game tells a story more like a persistant world RPG, where the moves of the player and the results of those moves determine the actions of the other countries, and you are left to tell the story by the events that unfold.
Gameplay
Gameplay is precisely what you would think it would be like – very typical for a turn-based strategy game. In the campaign, you begin by selected one of a few starting nations. For this review, I selected Russia because they seemed like the easiest choice for me to get a feel for the game. You are given a certain amount of starting troops, which you can select where to place them before the game begins. You are also given a couple of starting mission objectives to give you a direction to start your world conquest. Russia’s campaign starts off in a very “cloak and dagger” sort of way. All of your early missions focus on moving your Spetsnaz and spy units around Europe to gather intel or to sabotage your enemies’ supply lines.
Movement across the map is done using your unit’s move value. The issue I had here was that it was quite easy for me to move my Spetsnaz units across Europe. It was quicker for me to move them by land then it was by air or by sea. Sure, I know that the Spetsnaz are world-class special ops teams, but it just seemed like I could run them all over Europe without any type of impediment, that is until I actually tried to use them to sabotage something, then they would die instantly.
My Achilles heel in these types of games has always been resource gathering. Storm: Frontline Nations pretty much handles that on its own. Each territory you control has a Euro amount that is automatically given to you. That way you start each turn with a set of Euros dependent on the amount of territory you posses. This resource allows you to purchase new types of infantry units, tanks, air support or sea support. It also allows you to conduct research, from different types of power supplies to chemical warfare. Part of the Russian campaign is for you to get a spy into London and research locations for a strategic Anthrax attack.
Overall, if you have played any type of turn based strategy game, like The Battle of Wesnoth or anything by SSI Games, then you will easily understand the basis for Storm: Frontline Nations. For those of you that struggle at understanding all the intricacies of these types of games, don’t panic. Colossai Games has made sure that there is a tutorial system in place for you to read about the different systems in the game. Well, I would say panic a little, because the tutorial system is massive and intricate. This game has depth that many of us casual, turn-based strategy gamers will never quite fully understand.
Aesthetics
The aesthetics of Storm: Frontline Mission are nothing special. The graphics are very static and are used mostly to tell armies apart from one another. I had an especially hard time finding political boundaries and the locations of my mission objectives at first. Once I realized where each country once and then started to determine regions within each country, it became easier for my to find my objectives. For those of you that have failed geography in the past be prepared to play this game with a detailed map of Europe.
In fact, the whole game feels like an electronic version of Risk. The graphics and sound here are just used as a tool to deliver the game to the player, not as a way to immerse the player into the game. There is no immersion or depth here in the aesthetics department, so Storm: Frontline Nations feels like a board game that you play on your pc.
Final Thoughts
What Storm: Frontline Nations boils down to is whether or not you like turn based strategy games that focuses on current European issues. If you love the idea of replaying the battle of Gettysburg, or seeing if you can conquer Europe during World War II, then Storm: Frontline Nations is the game for you. If the idea of resource management and European intrigue makes your stomach crawl, then I would strongly suggest skipping Storm: Frontline Nations.
Looks like video gamers and video game makers have once again prevailed against a law that would ban the sale of violent games to minors, with Justice Scalia writing:
Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And “the basic principles of freedom of speech . . . do not vary” with a new and different communication medium.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court struck down on Monday a California law banning sales or rentals of violent video games to minors as a violation of free-speech rights, its first ruling in a video game case.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices upheld a ruling by an appeals court that declared the law, which also imposes strict video-game labeling requirements, unconstitutional.
The law was challenged by video game publishers, distributors and sellers, including the Entertainment Software Association. Its members include Disney Interactive Studios, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Corp and Sony Computer Entertainment America.
The law, adopted in 2005, has never taken effect because of the legal challenge. It defines a violent video game as one that depicts “killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.” Retailers who sell or rent a violent video game to a minor could be fined as much as $1,000.
The nation’s video game industry has about $10.5 billion in annual sales. More than two-thirds of U.S. households include at least one person who plays video games.
Six other states have adopted similar laws, and all were struck down in court.
The Supreme Court rejected California’s argument that the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees under the First Amendment do not prevent a state from prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors under 18.
“Our cases hold that minors are entitled to a significant degree of First Amendment protection. Government has no free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which they may be exposed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in summarizing the court’s majority opinion from the bench.
PAYDAY: The Heist is a premier quality downloadable game designed to deliver a unique spin on the First Person Shooter genre. As an intense, gritty and unapologetic episodic co-operative shooter, PAYDAY is packed with cocky attitude, epic Hollywood-inspired action and endless replayability.
With six action-packed heists to complete at launch, players embark on a spectacular crime tour of heists, including shooting their way through a downtown bank vault robbery, trading hostages in an armored car hijacking and even a moonlit infiltration of a high-security headquarters.
Additionally, PAYDAY: The Heist challenges players with dynamic environments and adaptive enemy tactics meaning no scenario will ever play out the same way twice. Players will have to work together, assigning team members to various tasks guarding key positions, keeping civilians in check and cracking through various security measures, while surviving wave after wave of law enforcement that shift their strategies based on player actions.
Key Features:
Six High-Intensity Heists to Pull: Whether you’re blowing the roof off a building to extract a safe via helicopter or emptying the vault at the First World Bank, these action packed heists will have players checking their six in the living room.
Interactive Co-op Gameplay: Whether AI or live, your crew of four must operate as one to bring home the bacon. Sharing extra ammo and medic kits, helping regen wounded partners, distributing tasks like guarding key positions, taking civilian hostages or cracking through various security measures. It’s one for all and all for one.
Endless Replayability: Dynamic, adaptive environments combined with non-scripted enemy behavior, shifting entry points, FBI agents repelling down on ropes through the skylights, SWAT teams crashing through the windows or special units crawling through the ventilation shafts makes play-through of every heist a unique fight.
Massive Character Progression Tree: Choose a specialty – assault, sharpshooter or support – players gain weapons and equipment that fit their preferred form of violence. Unlock trip mines, silenced pistols, machine guns and much, much more.
Shout Out Button: Players need to be vocal and shout commands and directions to the co-op crew, as well as hostages and the police if they want to survive to spend their cut of the take.
Hostage Trading: Hostages can be a lifeline. If anyone in the crew is taken into custody, trade hostages to get crew members back and increase the odds of completing your objectives.
PlayStation or PC: For keyboard and mouse marksman, as well as handheld controller snipers, PAYDAY is the uber FPS for a high intensity shooter fix.
More DLC in the form of additional heists, weapons and equipment means PAYDAY—a digitally distributed AAA quality title for less than half the price of a retail game—is total OVERKILL.
E3 Impressions:
I was walking around E3 and heard a couple guys talking about a game saying “It’s like they watched the beginning of Batman and based the game off the Joker’s robbery.” That sounded kind of interesting to me so I decided I would keep an eye out. I went on about the conference and later heard a couple guys talking and saying “Hey did you try that heist game? That thing is so much fun!” Not realizing it was the same game I kept an eye out for that too. Then I came around a corner and saw this:
Well that kind of grabs your attention. And right behind it is a kiosk full of gaming stations all full with players and onlookers. As I looked on each player took on a role in the heist, some being overly aggressive and getting themselves caught, others playing it cool, trying to control the bank employees while watching for the police. It is a scene from many movies though obviously an homage to one. As I stood there watching, a man in a black suit with the red word “Overkill” across his back stood beside me and started talking about it. Had I ever wanted to be running through traffic trying to get to the van like in the movie Heat? Did I like the beginning of The Dark Knight and wish I had been one of the Joker’s henchman? So they had planned homages and had planned to come into E3 quietly and become the word of mouth sensation by their theatrics and dynamic demo. They didn’t announce the existence of the company until a short time before E3 then didn’t announce they were going to be there until the week before. It seemed this tactic worked pretty well for them because the gamers weren’t the only ones paying attention, so were the judges and nominations got heaped upon the game. But did it play as well as it looked?
The game’s premise seems simple on the surface but is more sophisticated when you got hands on. Much like an actual heist things can go down a lot of different ways. As a result there is a bit of a learning curve, especially for casual gamers so a bit of patience is required while you get the hang of things. Once you do though this game sucks you in, the idea and the plot one that every guy who has every seen a heist movie has entertained at least in a daydream.
Last Call:
This game snuck into the show and soon stole a good portion of the FPS crowd’s attention. Was it because of the novelty of playing the robbers from a scene from a movie or the theatrics of the costumes on the representatives? It’s hard to say but I do know I will be looking forward to the full game’s release and seeing if the play lives up to the hype.
