Bethesda Softworks has announced that id Software’s RAGE has finally hit the Apple App Store in SD and HD (for the latest gen devices) flavors. This version of the shooter is an on-rails experience which clocks in at a hefty 793 megabytes for the HD variant.
Spike has announced the official nominees for its upcoming 2010 Video Game Awards. The ‘VGA’s will take place live on December 11th at 8pm ET/5pm PT on Spike. The awards show will also feature some surprise title reveals, such as some new game being developed by BioWare. We will be on-hand to cover the event live so stay-tuned.
Nominees for Game of the Year:
Call of Duty: Black Ops
God of War III
Red Dead Redemption
Mass Effect 2
Halo: Reach
Checkout all the nominees over at the VGA’s official website.
Electronic Arts has announced the next game in the Need for Speed series, SHIFT 2 Unleashed. The game, which is due out sometime next year, promises new experiences like driver battles, enhanced physics, and a first-person perspective. The game also features a brand-new rendering engine for the series. Also released was the debut trailer for the game, which you can see below!
From the ‘Awesome’ file comes this new survey from Blizzard Entertainment’s Customer Service department. It seems that one of the world’s most popular game developers would like to know what you think of their CS policies! Head on over to their survey page and let them know – it is a wonderful thing when a game company asks the gamers what they are doing well and what they could be doing better – don’t miss the chance to send them feedback.
Some of you may know of an upcoming alien invasion flick called Battle: Los Angeles. It is due out on March 11th, 2011 and promises an action-packed, visceral, and realistic depiction of a military response to an alien invasion. If you are a fan of these types of films, you need to watch the trailer below. In fact, click the vid twice, head over to YouTube and check it out in 1080p fullscreen – it is that good.
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.
‘War. War Never Changes…’
Fallout: New Vegas is the latest chapter in the Fallout series, which started with the original Fallout back in 1997. After being brought into the first-person world with Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout 3, developer Obsidian Entertainment has created this latest chapter in the beloved series.
Unlike Fallout 3, where you begin life as a vault-dweller, the player starts as a mail courier who has stepped into the wrong place at the most wrong time possible. In fact, you kind of die. Kind of. Suffice it to say that, upon being brought back from near-death, you get to customize out your character in a fashion that will be familiar to Fallout 3 fans. Character customization is fairly straightforward and Obsidian has made some of the skills a lot easier to select. For example, no longer do you have various ‘Gun’ skills (small, heavy, etc). In New Vegas, you simply have a ‘Guns’ skill. Of course, there is still an Energy Weapons skill as well as Melee and Unarmed abilities, but at least most guns are now grouped together. This comes in handy as the land surrounding New Vegas is fraught with danger and you need to be able to handle weapons of opportunity, whether it be a rusty pistol or a shiny laser rifle.
The area of New Vegas is actually built over the leftovers of what was once known as Las Vegas. In fact, there are so many familiar settings in the game that it made this Southern California resident hungry for a trip up the I-15 to actually play some craps! For instance, I was pleasantly surprised to see the roller-coaster and ‘Buffalo Bill’s’ esque casino at Primm – not to mention towns like Searchlight, Jean, and Boulder City on the map. Unlike the D.C. Wasteland, the Mojave area was not directly hit by the nuclear warheads (well, not as many) so much of the ground water is rad-free and there is plenty of plant-life about… And animals.
The actual gameplay of Fallout: New Vegas is similar enough to Fallout 3 that no detailed review is needed of the system, suffice it to say that it still does work. Rather, the changes from that system are what truly matters in this case. For instance, some of the old gameplay issues remain, like a wonky cinematic camera as well as strange cinematic animations. However, Obsidian has made a few additions to the gameplay mechanics which add a lot to the overall experience. First of these enhancements is the new crafting system. No longer are you stuck just crafting various one-off weapons. Now you can craft ammo at reloading benches as well as new weapons, mods, and food at crafting stations and camp fires. There are a lot more component types out there to use in said stations as well. Going back to ammo, now you have various degrees of ammunition for each caliber of weapon. You can get armor piercing rounds of +P rounds even!
The next big addition to the game is the faction system. No longer do you have just one reputation gauge with which all NPCs in the game world judge you by. Now, you can earn and lose reputation with a multitude of in-game factions. From the roguish Powder Gangers to the New California Republic. Pissing off one side may increase your standing with another. Furthermore, altering your rep too much can cause some sides not to deal with you anymore, shutting off access to certain quests.
This allows for a lot more re-playability in New Vegas, as you can explore the benefits of each faction against the others. Also related to this faction system are disguises. If, for instance, you put on a Powder Ganger’s armor you will become disguised as one of them. This came in handy as I explored the correctional facility near Jean. I entered a cell block, eliminated the enemies in the area and donned some of their armor before leaving. The various enemies in the courtyard were not alarmed by me at all, even after repeating the process through several cell blocks.
Obsidian has also added a lot of new weapons to the game, from 9mm pistols to my personal favorite – the Light Machine Gun. Nothing says ‘fragged’ like a hail of 5.56mm rounds peppering an enemy target. There is even a laser-based sub-machine gun which will leave enemies burnt to a crisp in no-time flat. A big emphasis was placed on combat in this Fallout game, it is much more the Aliens to Fallout 3’s Alien.
The stories and quests of New Vegas are where this game really alters from its predecessor. In Fallout 3, your main storyline was VERY epic and all-consuming. In New Vegas, you are already born into the outside world and the main story feels like more of a guideline than a rule. At 18 hours in, I had yet to be in New Vegas and was instead doing all of the quests scattered across the landscape I could find. The game has an incredible amount to do and see. Its almost a post-apocalyptic life simulator than sci-fi game. This is not a negative by any means, it is actually rather refreshing.
Surprisingly, this Fallout game is plagues by bugs – including numerous crashes to the desktop. I have gotten into the habit of saving quite often just in case as these CTDs appear out of nowhere. These bugs are not just on the Windows PC version either, as many Xbox 360 gamers are complaining about similar issues (albeit not CTDs). One has to wonder how the Obsidian QA process contrasts from that of Bethesda’s in order to let these bugs hit retail shelves.
Visually, the graphics of Fallout: New Vegas look only slightly better than those in Fallout 3. They are good, but not great, and I was disappointed that the visual quality had not been increased further since the last game. Sound design is excellent, with the world of New Vegas and the Mojave area teeming with various ambient noises. Actors are all incredible, from Battlestar Galactica’s Michael Hogan to Friends’ Matthew Perry to Ron Perlman (like you need a reminder). Everyone does a terrific job at giving their characters vocal life.
Overall, Fallout: New Vegas is a great role-playing experience, whether you are new to the series or are experienced enough to remember when you heard Richard Dean Anderson in a Fallout game. Despite its bugs, the game will provide you with a tremendous amount of playtime, just go out and explore!
Thom Robertson has released a new gameplay video of his spaceship bridge simulation, Artemis. In the game, players each use their own PC or laptop to simulate a bridge station and the ‘Captain’ makes commands as needed – as is the case in most of the sci-fi shows on television. The game demo is free to download and play, and looks to be a fun time if you could get your friends and the needed hardware together. The full version of the game costs $60 dollars.
Here is the trailer (hand-held capture) for the upcoming prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing. Known simply as The Thing, the film tells the story of the Norwegian expedition who discovers the alien organism buried in the Antarctic ice. The Thing is due out on April 29th, 2011.
This trailer was shot via iPhone 4 while on the tram at Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights King Kong 3D attraction. It is ONLY being shown at HHN for the time being.
Capcom has released the Psychopath theme pack for their new zombie-killing epic, Dead Rising 2. The psychopath pack features and ‘insane’ new look as well as new zombie-killing weapons such as cleavers. The pack retails for 160 Microsoft Points on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and $1.99 on the PlayStation Network.
Checkout the theme pack trailer below!
