Author - Ripper71

Unreal Engine 3 Used For ‘Fable: The Journey’

2011/06/06

Microsoft Studios, Lionhead Studios and Epic Games, Inc. announced that Lionhead is developing “Fable: The Journey” using Epic’s award-winning Unreal Engine 3. Revealed during the Xbox 360 E3 2011 Media Briefing, “Fable: The Journey” is poised to take the action-adventure series to Kinect for Xbox 360.

“In using the Unreal Engine with its excellent tools for crafting cinematic in-game experiences, it allows our developers to focus on the quality and uniqueness of ‘Fable: The Journey,'” said Peter Molyneux, creative director of Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios Europe. “Already we are seeing a more beautiful, vivid and unique world full of dramatic moments and have crafted new, never seen before gameplay experiences.”

“The world of Albion has always been a beautiful place, and Lionhead embellishing it using the bells and whistles of Unreal Engine 3 makes it even more magical,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “Furthermore, Lionhead truly impresses with their proficiency for Kinect, with intuitive and natural feeling player interactions using voice and gesture controls in demonstrations we have seen firsthand. That gripping experience combined with stunning UE3 visuals truly make this is a world-class union of imagination and technology.”

Atari Releases New Ghostbusters: Sanctum Of Slime DLC Pack

2011/06/01

Ripper71

Articles, E3, News

As a follow up to the first ever Ghostbusters digital title , Atari is releasing additional downloadable content – Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Challenge Pack, bringing hours of new single player action to the title with two game modes on the Xbox 360, and Windows PC on Steampowered.com.

Specific highlights from the Challenge Pack include:

· Arcade Challenge: Designed for seasoned gamers, Aracade Challenge gives players a limited number of lives to see how their skills line up on a distinct Global Leaderboard. Players run through 5 of the game’s most challenging levels in single player mode and once the lives are up, the game is over. Player scores are automatically posted to a new real-time Leaderboard.
· Lonely Hero: Players can select any level they have unlocked and start from there but this time you are on your own – no co-op, no friendly teammates- just one player to combat the waves of the paranormally possessed.

Developed by Behavior Studios, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Challenge Pack will be available on June 1, 2011 for $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points.

EverQuest II: The Children of War Update Now Available

2011/05/31

Ripper71

Articles, News

Sony Online Entertainment has released the 60th game update for their MMO, EverQuest II. This new updated features a whole host of updates, all of which you can read about below – enjoy!

Game Update 60 Includes:

PvP & Battlegrounds improvements, including but not limited to:

Lobby system so players can hang together between matches with PvP merchants available locally
New Velious battleground map (“The Frozen Tundra”)
New Battleground game type (“Vanquish!”)
PvP and Battlegrounds rule modifications for better balance and fun
Fame system improvements
New Velious Discord faction to purchase new PvP equipment and adornments
Additional new PvP armor and adornments

Itemization:

New Adornments interface to make this system easier to understand
Continued honing of the itemization system

Drunder*:
Three new heroic dungeons:

Confront Warmaster Grolla Skullwielder in the Spire of Rage
Challenge Warmaster Korok Hai in the Strategist’s Stronghold
Battle Warmaster Deynka Packlasher in the Tower of Tactics

One new x2 raid – Citadel of V’uul

Defeat Queen Vorticia V’uul in the Citadel of V’uul

Three new x4 raids [all available in Normal and Challenge modes]:

Encounter Sullon Zek in Sullon’s Spire
Test your strength against Tallon Zek in Tallon’s Stronghold
Prove yourself against Vallon Zek in Vallon’s Tower

Additional Content:

Visit Whipmaster Snargeant in the Fortress of Drunder to assist with new daily missions within Drunder
Speak to Provocateur Bas Darkfrost at Thurgadin Docks to earn Primal Velium Shards through a new solo quest
Two new heritage quests
Additional signature quest line
New tradeskill quests and recipes
New adornments interface
Ratonga players will find Qeynos has become more accepting of their presence
And Coming Soon: Help build the wizard and druid transportation network in Velious

*NOTE: Drunder content is locked to DoV expansion owners only. All other GU content affects all players.

CD Projekt RED and GOG to Reveal Big News at “CDP Summer Days”

2011/05/28

Ripper71

E3, News

CD Projekt RED creator of The Witcher series and its sister company GOG.com, the digital distribution platform for DRM-free PC games, are going to reveal some big news just before E3 at their “CDP Summer Days” live from Los Angeles. The announcements will be made on June 2 at 12:00pm pst at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cdp-summer-days.

CD Projekt RED will be making a big announcement about their next upcoming title and have some other exciting things to share during their Summer Days livecast. CDP RED will discuss some of the successes of the recent launch of The Witcher 2, and will also map out a plan for continued support for the new title. GOG.com has already teased that during the CDP Days 2011 Spring Conference they will reveal a new deal with one of five big publishers still not signed with them: Microsoft, Lucas Arts, Electronic Arts, Square Enix or Take2. During the live stream GOG.com will reveal the name of the publisher and the first games out of the batch of 25+ titles that will be released throughout summer 2011 at GOG.com. Both GOG.com and CD Projekt RED representatives will be available for interviews at E3.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (XBLA)

2011/05/25

Ripper71

News, Reviews

This game has an immense appeal to a certain kind of gamer geek. If you have ever owned a set of dice with more than six sides, ever spent a whole weekend with a group of friends locked in a room together with pencil and paper on the table in front of you listening to a friend hidden behind a cardboard blind narrating a tale or heck ever stepped on a four-sided die then you probably know that special feeling that you can get when someone mentions “Daggerdale”. A place of rich history tucked away in The Forgotten Realms, it is a great setting for the current land of storytelling and adventuring: video games. Not that video games are new, or that this is the first time that the Forgotten Realms have been remembered and brought to life in digital glory, but it marks the first attempt to incorporate Fourth Edition rules into a console hack and slash environment. Just the nature of the platform will cause a bit of simplification, too much detailed play can not only be taxing on the system but can also but taxing on the player who is trying to use a limited number of controls to navigate a massive world. There is nothing wrong with this at all as long as the developers can give the player the feel of the Dungeons & Dragons world while still making it fun to play.

Atmosphere:

The cutscenes aren’t quite as engaging as I would have liked, they consisted of concept art being dissolved between but it still worked and the voice acting was not bad. When you enter the game itself it actually gets more engaging with excellent graphics, toned down music that is usually just underneath and mellow until a massive fight begins then it raises in volume and tempo. The main time when this breaks down is when talking to npcs. They just make a series of inarticulate grunting noises while words scroll by on the screen. Now this is not completely uncommon in console games as a means of saving space but even if they just said a “what can I help you with” or better yet no sound at all then the immersiveness into the game would have been far easier. As a player we can overlook no voice acting or bad voice acting but grunting is just strange. Luckily as soon as you find yourself running through the dungeon halls you forget all about it again.

Game Play:

There are three types of game play and four types of characters to choose from. There is solo campaign, local co-op campaign and online multiplayer co-op campaign. Solo campaign is pretty self explanatory, local co-op is split screen and multiplayer co-op online is up to four players. The four characters you have to choose from are a human warrior, elf rogue, dwarf cleric and halfling wizard. While at first this might seem limiting, race doesn’t really play that much of a factor and they are well designed. Let’s face it though most of you knew all that months ago. What you want to know is how it actually plays. It plays really, really smooth. Camera angles shift but are easily adjusted and the controls are excellent at response time and angle. The only problem I really found was that the game starts off hard really early so save a lot. If you are in the middle of a quest chain and you die it starts you back at the beginning of the chain which is a bummer and may get fixed, but it also causes the chests and barrels you raid for supplies to re-pop so it is a wash bordering on a benefit. The only real problem with that is failing the same quest at the same point and having to restart the chain again can get old, but you may find yourself facing it with a better purchased piece of gear or a better drop. Also you find you can grind a bit on the goblins so that you have a bit more strength when you get to the wicked looking and harder hitting skeletons.Online play hasn’t really gotten out of the gates yet due to how new the game is. When playing online you can choose between a new character or the one you have been campaigning with so if you have already grown attached you can bring your favorite out to play. During my playtime there were no glitches or lag issues so even though the load screens and cutscenes may be a bit dull, your in level action with be smooth and a beautiful sight to see. The Fourth Edition Rules are built into the equipment drops, damage and skill systems so that a true P&P geek will feel the rules in play but a console jockey will just hack and slash along for the ride. They did an excellent job making a console game with a PC D&D look and style

Playtime/Cost:

Playtime is really hard to figure, it depends on builds, play style, replayability which this game has at least four times, one for each class, not to mention online play and local co-op AND if you get stuck on a quest. But at $15 it is cheaper than a hardcover editions of the rules it is based on so I would say it is incredibly worth the money! And it is a good by for D&D geeks and console jockeys alike (if they aren’t the same person in your household).

The Good:

Great graphics, great game play, smooth controls, melded Fourth Edition rules in seemlessly.

The Bad:

Questlines have to be repeated if a quest fails. Could have used better cutscenes and less NPC grunting.

Last Call:

My inner geek is comfortable without a pencil for the time being and no paper is in sight. I will go right back to playing some more Daggerdale after finishing this review and know that the developers and publishers didn’t bring us another NeverWinter Nights but they didn’t really bring us a NeverWinter Nights 2 either! (yep, I said it). Instead they gave us a nice solid D&D game I can use to run my XBox through the paces and one that already has me looking forward to a sequel.

Side Note:

And if my cousin Aaron is reading this – back in 1982, when the succubus gave you the Kiss of Death she had shown plenty of amoral and downright evil behavior prior to that and you died due to your hormones. Accept it.

Bangai-O HD Missile Fury (XBLA)

2011/05/21

Ripper71

News, Reviews

Summary:

Bangai-O HD Missile Fury is the latest installment of a game series dating back to the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast over 20 years ago. Should it have been scrapped sometime over the years? Well I will let the big secret out right now… no! This game is great!

The Good:
Crazy missile attacks, great power ups, over 100 levels, addictive!

The Bad:
Hard from the start, addictive!

Atmosphere:
Atmosphere consists of level backgrounds and musical scores all which get lost quick in the really, really fast-paced action. They are well done and very nicely detailed but they for the most part channel the action and compliment the game play.

Game Play:
This shooter is one of the most over the top massively insane shooters I have ever played in 35 years of gaming. That may sound like a bold statement, and it is. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t. This games sole purpose is creating as many missiles, weapons and enemies as possible to attack you and giving you massive weapons, skills and missiles to attack back with. It doesn’t worry about story lines or cutscenes, it just makes an addictive overwhelming fighting game where strategic weapon use makes the difference between completing a level or restarting it in less than 30 seconds. Each level creates it’s own challenges to completion and tends to lead you to use a different weapon in different way so the fighting doesn’t get repetitive. Also the game has you try to beat a level three times then gives you the option to skip it and go back later if you like. The only problem with this is how addictive the game is and each level is. It just takes hitting a couple buttons after you die to be right back in the action trying a different technique to slam through the level. You had better have a clock nearby or an alarm set because you will lose track of time so fast that hours pass before you know it. Add a friend to the action and it just doubles the fun. Having a gaming night with friends? This game is great to play and extremely fun to watch.

Graphics/Audio:
Graphics is where this game could have very easily have wound up getting overwhelmed with the thousands of detailed missiles and rays flying all over the screen and it would have been easy for the explosions to actually cause audio errors. The graphics are so smooth that the death screen shows a clear view of all the action at that moment and you can save the play through and watch it back later. The screens between levels are a throwback to early graphic systems because all the beauty and detail is reserved for the battles.

Think You Can Do Better?:
If you think you can build a better level or just fancy yourself the creative type you can try your hand at building maps and levels that you can then share with your friends. At this time you can only share your custom designs with your friends list but maybe that will change sometime.

Playtime/Cost:
This game with over 100 levels, level building, multiplayer mode is only 800 points ($10). Hours of playtime and replayability makes this a steal.

Last Call:
Bangai-O HD Missile Fury is great, packed full of action and crazy amounts of missiles and mayhem and all at a great price. I can’t wait for the next one!

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.

Four Foo Fighters Tracks Hit Rock Band 3

2011/05/06

Ripper71

News

Harmonix announced that a four pack of songs from Foo Fighters including two off their new album Wasting Light, as well as singles from Run-DMC and Lordi, will be available in theRock Band 3 Music Store for the Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 and Wii. There will also be Pro Guitar and Pro Bass upgrades for two back-catalog Foo Fighters songs – “Monkey Wrench” and “The Pretender”.

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (May 10) and PlayStation 3 system (May 19):

Foo Fighters – “Long Road to Ruin”
Foo Fighters – “Rope”X
Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors”
Foo Fighters – “Walk”
Run-DMC – “King of Rock”
Lordi – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”

Pro Guitar/Bass Additions for Legacy Songs:

Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”X
Foo Fighters – “The Pretender”X

Tracks marked with “X” will include Pro Guitar and Pro Bass expansions for $0.99 per song.

Yar’s Revenge Review (PC)

2011/05/01

Ripper71

News, Reviews

So way back in the ancient days of a little box known as the Atari 2600 (you may have seen one in a museum or Antiques Roadshow), Atari put out an insanely addictive game called Yar’s Revenge. In 1981 if you were a gamer you either had the game or had a friend who had the game and you played it a lot. The game was revised and revisited several times over the following years on different platforms before finally getting completely re-envisioned 30 years after it first came out. The question is, should you re-envision a classic or just leave nostalgia alone?

Graphics/Atmosphere/Sound:

Smartly dumping any semblance of the original game look the creators went for a cross between comic book and concept art style making it feel almost more like an interactive comic rather than a standard video game. The graphics remind me slightly of Borderlands in the sense of heavily outlining characters and shading style and everything is crisp and sharply finished with rich colors. Atmosphere wise it creates a claustrophobic train-out-of-control sense since it is a rail shooter and the blasts coming out you are really large and though you can fly around the screen and even do flip dodges you have no control over where you go. Audio consists mainly of calm music tracks and intense ones to fit the action and a few weapon sound effects. This might be one of the biggest lacking points in the game since while you are fighting things like crazy the storyline continues in a little dialogue box in the corner. Voice acting would have made a huge improvement on the game and made the storyline far more engaging. For the most part you get part of the storyline from cutscenes between levels (which have subtitles and no voice acting) and the tidbits you manage to catch by glancing in the corner while flying through battle.

Game Play:

Game play is pretty straight forward though there are obvious signs that it is a port that really should have been changed. Primarily you move around the screen using WASD to dodge incoming enemy fire while using the mouse to move your target sights around and fire your two standard weapons. Extra timed weapons can be collected throughout the level and they and the shields are assigned buttons 1-5. On your screen however it says these special weapons are located A, B, X, and Y with the symbols and letters displayed on the screen in their corresponding Xbox controller locations. You just have to memorize which button does which or hit them randomly to see what works. This is easy enough to get past but this plus references to joystick on the mouse menu and a vibration option when the game isn’t game pad enabled make it seem like they rushed to port it. Along these same lines I had multiple mouse targeting issues even after trying more than one mouse, downloading the game twice and re-installing it three times. The game play is fast and furious and fun, but the targeting issues did diminish it a bit to the point is felt more like playing Tempest than Yar’s Revenge sometimes.

The enemies are fun to fight and different weapons work better in different circumstances so a bit of strategy and timing are key to racking up the scores to really high numbers and sometimes the number of enemies gets daunting. The boss fights are fun and challenging and all seem to have their own style and defense you have to overcome. The enemies throughout the levels probably could have used a bit more variety other than just color changes but it is still fun to just blast the heck out of everything you see on the screen.

Feeling A Little Left Out:

Let’s face it a lot of games replayability depends on the extras such as in this case achievements and leader boards. Plenty of gamers want to be the top of the board and will replay over and over until they get all the achievements. On XBLA you can earn 200 points between all the achievements making those who strive for a high gamer score play hours upon hours. On the PC however the leader boards and achievements are disabled leaving you to look them up on the web to even know what you are missing. Even if you didn’t earn points by playing it on the computer the option to achieve those achievements and therefore get lots of replay would be really nice.

Time/Cost

Yar’s Revenge runs about 3 hours with a total of six levels. The levels are very long and the fighting is fun but it still feels short. And on the PC you can replay it if you want, maybe to see what aspects of the storyline you missed or just to blast away with different weapon choices but really for the computer it is a one time play. The price is the same for the PC version as it is for the Xbox and is really affordable at $10 but you aren’t getting as much game as you get on the console.

Last Call:

Yar’s Revenge is a fun game with nice looking graphics and lots and lots of fun shooting. At $10 it definitely affordable too. I have to say though that I wouldn’t highly recommend it for the PC, if you have an Xbox pick it up on there, you will get much more play for your money and it would make a decent party game with co-op drop in and out available.

iBUYPOWER and Wal-Mart Launch Build Your Own Gaming Desktop

2011/04/26

Ripper71

News

iBUYPOWER announced it has partnered with Wal-Mart to launch the retailer’s first custom configurator on Walmart.com – Build Your Own Gaming Desktop Bundle. Wal-Mart customers will have five cases to choose from, both AMD and Intel “K” processor options, three different memory options, three hard drive sizes to choose from and both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards options, three different optical drives to choose from and three versions of the Windows 7 operating system. The result is over 10,000 different possible hardware configurations.

“There are few brands in the world that are as recognizable as Wal-Mart,” said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER. “It is an honor to be chosen to join forces with them to offer custom built PCs, and will introduce the iBUYPOWER brand to an entirely new segment of gamers.”

The new customizable iBUYPOWER systems from Wal-Mart start at $599, all systems come standard with 1 year limited warranty and lifetime technical support.

Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy Review

2011/04/04

Ripper71

Reviews

The UMD is dead, long live the UMD:
Alright I admit that the reason I picked up my model of PSP was because a particular sci-fi black-clad barbecued bad ass was on the outside of it. Not the best reason to buy a system but, since I was planning on buying one anyways, it helped me choose. At first, when I heard about the new model coming out without the UMD, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Then I started playing games that utilized the UMD and I wondered if everyone else had made a mistake. I began to hear about UMD player plug-ins you could buy for the UMDless PSPs and I knew at least a few had come to the same realization I had: Just because something new comes along doesn’t mean that it is better and/or the old one is obsolete. So, while so many were beginning to sit about and look to the future for the next system to come out, some game makers such as Square Enix put the UMD to some good by bringing out beautiful and rich games on the little drive that many had forgot. The result is games like Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy, [The 3rd Birthday], Ogre Tactics: Let Us Cling Together and Lord of Arcana which all have rich environments, excellent battle systems and amazing cinematics and have me hoping for more gifts of gaming like these before the UMD is truly abandoned.

Atmosphere:
From a map of the old Final Fantasy games’ style maps to the nostalgically recognizable music compositions this game succeeds at capturing the feel of a Final Fantasy game while allowing non-turn based combats in three dimensional space. So unlike the days where some of the game’s heroes and villains came from the characters jump high in the air sideways, ride light rails and do their famous specialty moves all in three story buildings or rooms with pillars to fight one and through. The cutscenes feel like the old games, the personalities were well recreated but the game play is so fluid that it pulls you in really well.

Graphics/Audio:
The graphics are terrific and the sounds are crisp and enjoyable. The cut scenes are exceptionally well rendered and yet the fight scenes also maintain the graphic quality. The game gives you the option to load part of it onto the PSPs hard drive to reduce the loading time but the loading times aren’t that bad, they were actually good enough that I didn’t find a need to load it onto the hard drive, it is nice to have the option though. So the graphics are great and don’t have to be compromised for game speed or loading times. The music really takes your senses back through the Final Fantasy games of the past while coming up with a crisp and clear sound of its own.

Game Play:
Game play is designed to be accessible to any kind of Final Fantasy fan. For those who enjoyed the fighting but didn’t care much about the storyline (or if you have a friendly wager on who you think is a tougher hero or villain) there is Battle mode where you can just choose to fight and adjust levels of difficulty and can unlock arenas and characters to fight each other without worrying about story wise why they would be fighting. Then there is Story Mode with replayable chapters which are designed to give a nice story explaining how the characters came to be in this situation while allowing players to grind up characters, unlock more options and individualized which skills you find most effective. There are lots of options to be unlocked through play and so many game play choices that it is easily possible for two different people to play it and have entirely different experiences. The actual battle dynamics work well and are easy to learn and the camera angle follows extremely well.

Playtime/Cost:
Since the game has multiplayer, multiple playable characters and multiple game modes $29.99 isn’t bad for a game that you can not only play over and over but take where ever you want without having to lug a console around with you.

Last Call:
I think this is one more example by Square Enix of how the UMD may be considered a format of the past but it is an excellent platform for the here and now and, hopefully, the near future. Keep making them and I will keep playing them and loving every minute of it.

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this game was sent to us for the purpose of this review.