LucasArts has announced that it will be streaming a special sneak-peek demo of their upcoming The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition this Friday, June 19th, at 3PM PST. Be sure to check back to this article to watch it live!
Author - Jerry Paxton
One of the biggest problems plaguing iPhone owners is battery life. In fact, it seems that most smart phones these days just don’t have the juice to make it more than four or five hours, if you’re lucky. This has given rise to the external battery pack market. But in the case of the iPhone, none of these solutions up until now have offered the flexibility, form, and function of the Mophie Juice Pack Air.
Compatible with the iPhone 3G as well as the new iPhone 3G S, the Mophie Juice Pack Air looks like pretty much any stylish iPhone case does. It is made from a hard, black plastic that offers a smooth shine and has rounded corners which make it look almost like an actual extension of your iPhone.
Inside the unit, though, you will find a lithium polymer, 1200 mAh battery which will provide about the same amount of power as the standard iPhone 3G’s battery will, so about 4.5 hours depending on usage. The best thing about the Juice Pack Air is that the design of the case, including the size of it’s battery, does not make the phone so large it cant fit in your pocket, unlike many battery packs out there.
The drawback to this smaller size is, of course, a limit to the size of the battery Mophie could put inside it. In many battery packs, which are just too large to be practical, you get up to three days of normal usage. With the Mophie, it is only double the amount of usage time but at least you can easily carry it around – you won’t need to shell out $50 dollars on a gadget shoulder-holster just to take the thing with you.
Another thing about the Juice Pack Air is that the case actually protects your phone. Unlike the larger cases out there, the Juice Pack Air closes around you iPhone, keeping the phone locked into place. This is in contrast to the cases which act as more of a mobile cradle, with no top cap to the case at all. This has always made me nervous as I am afraid that the iPhone would fall out of the case should it drop on the ground. With this Mophie unit it is staying put.
On the back of the Juice Pack Air you will find a four LED battery pack indicator. These light up, a pleasing blue hue, in sequence denoting the amount of charge in the case battery.
Near the bottom of the case’s front you will find port holes which lead to the speaker and microphone interfaces on the bottom of the iPhone. These help to funnel the sound, into and out of the phone, to the front instead of the bottom. This is mostly because it made more sense than drilling holes into the bottom of the Juice Pack Air, where they would have to fight the battery for position.
The one thing that could be improved upon, while a minor issue, is using a more direct iPhone dock pass-through port on the bottom of the Juice Pack Air. Currently, the iPhone will dock into the case and that connection is then transmogrified into a mini-USB port on the bottom of the case. The Juice Pack Air includes a mini-USB cable for you to use but getting accustomed to bringing that cable along instead of your standard iPhone cable takes some doing.
On the brighter side, the Juice Pack Air features an on/off switch located on the bottom of the case. This allows you to choose when and where you want to let the power flow. Some people like running the iphone down first and others prefer drawing from the extra battery first – the choice is now yours.
The Mophie Juice Pack Air is available in black, purple, and white and is compatible with both the iPhone 3G and 3G S. It retails for $79.95 at Mophie’s official site.
After the cancellation of Obsidian’s Aliens RPG, geeks everywhere knew that the future of the Aliens game franchise would rest with Gearbox Software’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. Back in February, unfortunately, we heard that Colonial Marines had been cut-back and delayed if not canceled entirely!
Now we have learned that Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox Software, has told Kotaku that their long-anticipated Xenomorph shooter is, in fact, still in development, although he does mention it is not slated for this year.
Also, if you are big fans of the Aliens franchise and missed our media-only preview of Aliens vs Predator at E3 a couple weeks ago, check it out!
High Voltage Software is most well-known for their upcoming Nintendo Wii shooter, The Conduit. However, if you were so lucky as to have the proper media credentials and also get an appointment, you could get a look at two new titles they were previewing at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. While we had the credentials, we had no appointment. Even though the expo hall did not open until 10:00am on Wednesday morning, the good folks at High Voltage allowed us a look at the demo’s earlier in the morning.
One of the demo’s shown was The Grinder, an upcoming Left 4 Dead/Serious Sam-style shooter. The other was called Gladiator AD. While The Grinder will definitely warrant further examination, I wanted to tell you a bit about the game which could change the way you look at the Nintendo Wii forever: Gladiator AD… (Cont.)
(cont.) In its simplest terms, Gladiator AD is a mature fighting game where two opposing gladiators will duke it out in blood sport inside great coliseums and other arenas. Players will have many fighters to choose from, each with their own weapons, tactics, and abilities.
The two fighters we saw were a lumbering hulk of a man wielding a war club and a nimble woman who dual-wielded short swords. The game is not a really fast fighter but, rather, a more tactical match-up where button-mashing will not be rewarded. With the variety in each fighter, you really have to play to your strengths while exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses.
The most striking thing about Gladiator AD is its sheer brutality. In fact, it is the bloodiest game I have ever seen for the console and really shows that the Wii can be for adults too. High Voltage is filling a neglected Wii player segment with Gladiator AD. In the game, you will be able to do awful things to your enemy not only in combat but also with over-the-top finishing moves. For instance, in another demo fight, the war club-wielding behemoth obliterated another version of himself by literally bashing his opponent’s head clean-off with the club.
The brutality persists during the standard combat rounds of course, with fighters being able to knock-off their opponent’s armor and weapons. Fights can even come down to bare-knuckle brawls if both warriors lose their armaments…or even arms (hacking off a player’s arm is possible).
The two developers on-hand to show us this upcoming carnage-fest, Art Director Matt Corso and Design Director David Pellas, assured us that those of you who are merciful gladiators will not be left out in the cold either. There are other, non-fatal finishing moves that you can pull off on your enemy. Called ‘humiliations’, these finishers will not only make your opponent look bad but also win favor with the crowds in some case, which offers bonuses of its own.
Gladiator AD is not only about fighting though (well, most of it is) as each fighter features their own storyline as to their motivations in the gladiatorial games.
The game also features some really great visuals and audio, with a graphics engine that tries to compete on a level of the other big next-gen consoles and a musical score by ‘Rome’ composer Jeff Beal. According to the dev team they are not too far into production (roughly seven months) and are looking at a release sometime into 2010. From what we can tell it will be worth the wait. So, in the meantime, go make some popcorn and put on Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. You need practice!
E3 2009 Gladiator AD Trailer:
Phantom EFX, long-known for their vast line of casino games is shifting gears slightly and publishing Darkest of Days, a time-traveling shooter title being developed by 8Monkey Labs. While at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, we were fortunate enough to get a behind closed-doors walk-through of the title.
The story of Darkest of Days is set, initially, in what we would call the future. At some point, mankind discovers time travel and begins research expeditions into the past. They are finding that someone has been changing the past as people who were recorded as dying at military battles and other major events in our history are living while others who were recorded as living are ending up dead… (Cont.)
(Cont.) Obviously, this represents a potentially world-altering threat as there is no telling how widespread throughout the time line such changes could effect. So, the agency responsible for the technology to begin with (‘Mother’s Organization’) starts sending back agents to these historical events to right the wrongs. This raises the question of just where, exactly, to get these agents? Having people from the future go back is out of the question as if they should die on a mission, it would be depriving the future of their existence (and could further alter the time line in the process).
Enter you, the player. In the walk through we received it showed the player starting as a member of General Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Big Horn. During the course of the battle you receive some serious injuries and, before you die, time stands still as a portal opens up from the future. An agent walks out of it and recruits you to this organization. It would seem that Mother’s Organization found their agents in what the future would call M.I.A’s (or people who ended up ‘missing in action’). Since there is no record of what happened to these individuals, the organization feels they are their best hope of correcting the time line.
The game engine used by Darkest of Days, codenamed: ‘Marmoset’, was developed in-house at 8Monkey Labs and was made to accommodate a large number (hundreds) of characters on the screen at one time without a sizable performance loss. The game levels we saw played featured some very respectable visual quality and, yes, a ton of NPCs on both sides of the conflicts. When you travel back in time to the Battle of Antietam and you will be amazed at the sheer number of Confederate soldiers which charge from the cornfields at Union lines.
Thankfully, this is not just your normal shooter as if you make a mistake during the missions at hand, which could be killing too many of the wrong people or altering the course of the battle you will have to go back in time once more but as the ‘other side’ to balance these changes. The battlefields provided by the game are very large and while they have a number of scripted events they are largely sandbox-style in terms of what you can choose to do.
In the Antietam level the developers showed us, they decided to ‘chuck’ the orders at hand and single-handedly charge Confederate lines. The corn fields seemed to go one forever but, sure enough, at their end was the Confederate army complete with cannons.
Weaponry was a big issue for the developers as while they wanted to make use of historically-accurate weapons they also wanted to add a few big, futuristic armaments for the player to use. You need use these sparingly though, as it can alter the time line if you cut down rows of Civil War-era soldiers with your sub-machine gun. While cool and reminiscent of the opening scene in Time Cop, it just isn’t a good thing to do. The big coup de grace of the title looks to be a battle between Mother’s Organization time agents and their antithesis organization which is messing with history. It takes place in Pompeii during its historic (and devastating) eruption. Since all of those individuals are destined to die, both organizations see no problem with letting loose all the futuristic weapons and armor they can muster. After all, who are they going to tell?
The game also, at one point in its development history, featured a couple of the more controversial events in history, one of them being the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11th, 2001. One of your fellow time agents was a firefighter listed as missing during the tragedy. While it would have been respectfully-implemented, the developers chose to wait on telling those stories in such a vivid fashion. Although, according to at least one developer on-hand at the walk-through, it is still something they would like to explore at some point down the road (DLC perhaps?).
Personally, we hope they do: Video games depicting scenes of tragedy such as those (see the recently-canceled Six Days in Fallujah) may be hard to stomach at times but like all great art they have something to say beneath the surface, especially when handled respectfully with regards to history – something that the developers of Darkest of Days take to heart, first and foremost.
Darkest of Days looks to tell an intricate tale of time-travel, war, and the nature of fate all while featuring an in-game engine capable of some pretty surprising things. It is due out on the PC and Xbox 360 platforms on August 25th.
Hey there Shogunites! We were lucky to get a sneak preview (with hands on time) of Warner Brothers/Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum at E3 2009. Thankfully, the game lives up to all the hype, and it’s not just another button masher. It’s free-form combat system, combined with mandatory stealth movement, make the game suspenseful, challenging, and dammit… exciting! (cont)
Story-wise, the Joker has taken control of Arkham Asylum in an attempt to lure Batman into a fatal trap. The Joker’s goons control the whole building and you, as Batman, have to work your way through the Asylum to pacify the facility, and re-capture the Joker.
The freeflow combat system is very well done. Instead of having to manuever Batman through a myriad of enemies, there are a limited number of attack buttons, and Batman chooses his enemies in a manner which kicks maximum ass. Lightening bolt-shaped indications above an enemy’s head indicate when Batman should press his counter-attach button. If your reaction time is good enough, Batman should mow through his enemies like Neo battling his way through a dozen incarnations of Agent Smith.
Batman doesn’t use firearms, of course, so the game is not just button mashing. In our hands on preview, we had to employ stealth more often than hand-to-hand combat. In Arkham Asylum, Batman has an ‘investigative’ mode where his cowl switches to a view which is part x-ray, part night vision. The game highlights objects Batman can interact with, and using this information, the player can stalk the night, taking enemies out one by one.
In our hands on preview, for example, we had to get past a number of armed guards. It only takes three or four shots to bring Batman down, so the goal is to be as quiet, and as stealthy as possible. Using the grappling hook, we went from corner to corner along the roof, occasionally swooping down on an enemy only to jump quickly out of sight again. This process requires a lot of thought and pre-planning. You can’t just jump in and be ready to melee your way through a fight. Your strength is in the shadows.
The developers we spoke with indicated that there were six major villains in the game: Zsasz, Poison Ivy, Bane, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, and the Joker. We asked two different developers how much time it took to complete the game and received two strikingly different answers. One quoted us a play time of 10-15 hours, while another assured us the average was 25 hours.
In addition to the story mode, there are a number of quick play ‘challenge’ modes, where the player could choose to play as either Batman or the Joker through a number of scenarios.
Batman: Arkham Asylum comes out on August 25 on all platforms. Visit the official site and stay tuned for more info!
While at Valve Software’s ‘confidential’ meeting (thanks for spoiling the surprise Microsoft Press Conference) for Left 4 Dead 2, we got the chance to speak with Doug Lombardi once again on the upcoming game. I say ‘once again’ as you may or may not remember that last year at E3 we spoke to him about Left 4 Dead.
In this follow-up interview a year later, we talk about what improvements we will see in the game as well as the short dev cycle between the sequel and the previous title.
Half-Life 2 fans, know that I did ask him about episode three and you can hear his response towards the end of the interview.
While at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles the other day, we were treated to interview Codemasters Executive Producer Sion Lenton about their upcoming Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising.
Aside from the interview below, I got the chance to ask him if the compass and other UI elements means that the game was ‘dumbed-down’ from the original. He said that the demo they showed us was set to ‘easy’. On the harder difficulties these elements goes away – even the targeting reticule!
I must admit that I was not really hyped about Just Cause 2 when we arrived at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo a few days ago. Its not that the game did not seem like it would be entertaining or well-done, I just had so many other games on my mind at that moment it was pushed aside. However, after seeing Just Cause 2 at the behind closed-doors presentation with Eidos I am salivating for more. (cont.)
We took our seats inside the small presentation room Eidos had setup to show off Just Cause 2 and Lead Game Designer Peter Johansson began to talk about the game. When Just Cause 2 finally did show on the screen we were treated to a stunning vista from a peak on the fictional island of Panau. At the edge of the peak was the game’s protagonist, Rico Rodriguez. After spinning the camera about a few times to show off the incredible draw-distance and scope of the island, which measures roughly 400 square miles in area, Rico jumped from the peak and began plummeting to the island below.
His target: some random military encampment. At a thrilling (and dangerously low) altitude the devs popped Rico’s shoot and guided him towards the base, spraying the caught unawares enemies below with machine gun fire from above. Then, Rico deftly kicked off his shoot and began what can only be described as a ‘spree of destruction’, the likes of which we have never seen. The developers pushed Rico in an etxremely deft manner all around the base unleashing hell on the enemy.
Rico’s method for unleashing this hell? His stunt parachute and grappling hook arm. The combinations of tricks and stunts one can pull off using these instruments is really bewildering. The player can shoot his grapple at a distant location, begin pulling himself towards it, then disengage the grapple and engage the ‘chute. This instantly puts the player in the air and not only gives the death from above advantage but also allows Rico to travel quickly and get a better vantage of the terrain below.
Another thing which the developers showcased was Rico’s ability to tether two objects together with the grappling hook. In another scene of the presentation, we were treated to a thrilling car chase with Rico on the roof of a beat-up SUV. The driver was a man he had just rescued in a thrilling high-rise action-fest which ended with Rico pushing both of them out the window into a free-fall. Thankfully, Rico had his chute or they both would have been a little splat soon after. Back to the car chase: so with enemy Humvees gunning down on them, Rico could do all sorts of action film-style tricks to dispatch his foes. Using the tether feature of the grapple-arm, Rico connected an enemy Humvee at the side of his vehicle to a bridge arm. This caused the enemy Humvee to come to a very quick-stop and fly backwards into the air towards the bridge arm in the opposite direction. It really felt like we were watching some 80’s Schwarzenegger movie.
Rico can even tether enemies together to prevent them from escaping a grenade he lobs their way. This gameplay element seems well-implemented and, coupled with the re-usable stunt parachute, brings a whole new element to the third-person shooter.
In order to end the violence taking place on the island of Panau, Rico must cause as much ‘chaos’ in the enemy ranks as possible. This ‘chaos’ level is how Rico decreases the enemies’ sphere of influence.
One eye-opening feature of Just Cause 2 is just how many places there are to visit (and destroy). The area of gameplay which the developers showed us was displayed on the in-game map. We could see the peak where Rico started as well as the enemy camp and bridge. Places to disrupt the enemies’ influence are displayed as icons on this map. Well the developer began zooming the map out and it became startlingly apparent just how large this sandbox-style game really is. The area os the map which filled the screen just seconds before was now just a small spot on a much larger map showing hundreds of location icons.
Just Cause 2 is set to release in 2010 on the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. I might not have been hyped at the beginning of E3, but I most-certainly am now and can’t wait to play this one.
If you had a media pass at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, or were just really lucky, you could stand in line to get special look at THQ’s upcoming Warhammer 40k: Space Marine. We have enjoyed THQ’s W40k offerings before, but this game represents a break with tradition in taking the series to a third-person actioner, and we were really looking-forward to seeing it up close. (cont.)
The four and a half minute presentation began with the E3 trailer and was followed up with some random video clips of the game and a question and answer session with the on-hand developers.
The most interesting things we learned during the Q&A was not from what the developer’s would say, but from what they wouldn’t! The way a person phrases a ‘no comment’ statement can say quite a bit. When asked about multiplayer modes, the developers came back by asking us to look at other THQ Warhammer products’ multiplayer features. The dev also let slip that ‘[Space Marine is] not a solo game’.
Another reporter at the presentation asked about character customization. While the developers replied by saying that has not ‘been confirmed’ at this time, we could plainly see in some of the random game clips a screen showing a level 5 sergeant and his stats which looked upgradeable to us. So, we are presuming from this that you will be able to upgrade your character(s).
When I asked about how the single-player missions would be doled out, and if it would be selectable like the Dawn of War II missions are, they responded with another ‘nothing has been confirmed’ statement. There was nothing more to glean from the way they said this but a more dynamic story would not surprise us after how succesfuly it was in DoW2.
Vehicles and Dreadnaughts were brought up in one person’s questioning and the developers slyly responded with a ‘no comment’ and one actually verbalized ‘wink wink’. While a Space Marine actually has to die to become a Dreadnaught, thus not making it likely to be a ‘dread’ in the title, it would seem that they (or perhaps just APCs) will be in the game to some degree – perhaps simply one a supporting fire mission.
One of the issues many gamers seem to have with the E3 trailer for Space Marine is the focus on the space marine chapter known as the ‘Ultramarines’. While most of the ad material for the game also supports their being the central focus on the game, the developers stated that there has never been any confirmation on that fact and that since Space Marine is the beginning of a ‘new franchise’ we should not presume this to be true. Perhaps they are creating a new chapter for this title?
After the presentation was over, I ran into a will-remain-nameless person on the team I know. I inquired as to what game engine the game uses as many believe it to be the same as DoW2. He replied by saying it is actually not the same engine but looks similar as many of the same artists are worked on both titles.
No one would confirm a release date but the game will be coming out on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (hopefully a PC version will be announced at some point). Stay-tuned as new details are released about this game which looks quite intense with some seriously-fun action.
