2D side-scroller beat 'em up fans, where you at? Right here, dawg. Doesn't take much for me to be enamored with 2D action, usually swords, guns, and/or magic is enough to get me riled up in that realm. What happens if you add in some delicious art of thick-thighed amazon warriors and testosterone oozing man's men? Vanillaware's Dragon's Crown.
The Odin Sphere and Muramasa developer has taken their signature art style into the world of Dungeons and Dragons (without quite treading on AD&D) to create a lovely beat 'em up overflowing with swords, shields, arrows, magic, pectorals, thighs, and cleavage. The art is may be just a tad over the top, but it looks so damn good in motion! How has it taken these guys so long to put out an HD title? Dragon's Crown will be their first.
The question is, will the gameplay of Dragon's Crown be on par with the art? Why the hell not? There looks to be a rudimentary combo system in place, with the impact of each meaty blow holding a good amount of weight. Rightfully so, look at those huge.. Weapons! Four-player cooperative online beat 'em ups don't often disappoint. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is no different. Dragon's Crown will be available for PS3 and PlayStation Vita in Spring of 2012. Such a long time to wait for something so beautiful. What a tease.
Nintendo stepped out at E3 2011 and revealed their “next-gen” console, which is really a controller-centric device called the Wii U. From its early looks, the Wii U puts the focus on an oversized tablet controller, which features a massive 6.2-inch touchscreen. The overall bulk of the controller means that it’s going to be a bit of an unwieldy device, with a bit of a 'learning curve' for your hands. The controller incorporates many elements of a Wiimote, such as motion control. The Wii U tablet can be used together with Wiimotes and other accessories like the Wii Balance Board, to create some interesting combinations for gameplay. The controller is backwards compatible with all Wii games, however Wii U is no longer compatible with the Gamecube games.
The actual console looks like a beefed up lovechild of the Wii and Xbox 360, without the Gamecube controller ports. Nintendo did tout a lot of third party support with a compelling sizzle reel of upcoming games. What Reggie failed to mention - until after Nintendo’s press conference - was the fact that the reel was culled from Xbox 360 and PS3 games in development. Reggie did state that Wii U’s graphical performance will be on par with the other current-gen consoles.
The most intriguing element of the Wii U is that it takes the touchscreen tablet angle to its logical extreme: the device is a wireless window into the game console such that if the TV is otherwise occupied, the game can be played in full on the Wii U controller instead. This means that if someone else wants to use the main screen, you can keep playing your game on the console and access it via your touchscreen tablet. This takes a lot of the onus off being tied to the television set in the middle of the living room, and could open up a lot of different opportunities for social gaming in the same room, or around the house. This will depend heavily on the strength of wireless range that the Wii U is capable of maintaining.
Nintendo has sold over 86 million Wii units across the world, so they’re confident that they have a giant consumer base to work from. The primary concern that hung over the Wii, and what kept several developers flagship titles from gracing Nintendo’s now last-gen console, has been the platform’s overall horsepower. That problem is being resolved with the Wii U, which has the processing power to produce 1080p HD video content, something that anyone more than a social gamer must be thrilled with.
As an avid Nintendo fanboy, I always look forward to what the Big N brings to shows such as E3. The Wii U is no exception. I’m cautiously looking forward to the new console, and would love to see actual games harnessing the Wii U’s full power. Tech demos and footage from other systems can only go so far. A day after the announcement of Wii U, Nintendo’s stock saw a 5% drop to the lowest level it’s been in recent memory. It seems as if both investors and consumers alike may be skeptical of Nintendo’s direction. Currently, Nintendo is keeping tight-lipped with information such as launch date and price point for the Wii U, so there is still have a lot of details to look forward to.
But I want to know what you all think. Will you Wii U?
Until recently, Asura's Wrath has been nothing but a very long chain of ridiculous action sequences. The game I've lovingly nicknamed God Hand of War - for obvious reasons - is shaping up to be all I've ever wanted in an action brawler. The E3 trailer gives us a look at some of Asura's story, a complete departure from the frenetic scenes such as GALACTIC BUDDHA FINGER.
After watching an armless Asura be humbled by a God twice as cool-tempered as the fiery one, watch the clip below, which is more of what I expect from this title. With a surprising lack of quick-time events, no less! The initial thinking was that the gameplay of Asura's Wrath would be heavily comprised of QTEs, but whispers from E3 are starting to debunk that theory. Success! Deep, meaty gameplay with lovely stylized action is always welcome. If the story has enough to be the glue that holds together the amount of insanity concentrated in Asura's Wrath, then this game will be a success. And if not, I will take a melee-centric Vanquish any day of the week. Or maybe a better parallel would be a Dragron Ball Z action title? Either way, do want!
Well there you go, Devil May Cry purists. Ninja Theory must have heard all the complaining that was done about Dante's new look. Actually, I think the whole world heard it, it was as if millions of geeks suddenly cried out in terror. I hope your complaints are suddenly silenced.
As things look here, DmC manages to hold onto a lot of what the series is about, if a little shaky. I'm not a fan of all the drastic camera movements during the action sequences, but hopefully that's only to make things look a little more dramatic in this trailer. I could see that wearing me very thin if I had to deal with it during every swordplay segment.
But back to the important matters; the color of Dante's hair. It looks like his punk-styled locks go all albino when he enters some sort of Devil Trigger mode. Not only that, but his jacket also switches from the burgundy color that caused an outrage, to the crimson color that everyone seems to love! Since that has been straightened out, what should we complain about next?
Not too long ago, I used to love me some Fable. Regardless of how much of a jackass Peter Molyneux is, Fable and Fable II were solid games, even if they never delivered on everything Petey Hype promised. Then came along Fable III to ruin everything the first two games built.
So here's the Kinect entry in the series, Fable: The Journey. Hey Petey Hype, wasn't Fable III supposed to have Kinect support? Is this the component that was cut out? The bad part of The Journey is that it appears to be an on-rails shooter, where your hands are the gun and magic are your bullets. I won't lie, it looks kind of cool to actually be able to use your hands to cast a plethora of spells, but I'm keeping my expectations tempered. And by tempered, I mean I'm expecting Fable: The Journey to be just better than terrible.
It's been in development for a while - since 2007 to be exact - but Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is finally coming together and pushing toward a release during this year's Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade promotion. Finally!
I'm just going to go ahead and say I absolutely cannot wait for ITSP. It's like ICP, except not totally lame. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet has most things I want in a game; insanity, twisting, shadows.. Stuff like that. It's got the highly detailed minimalist art style of a Limbo or Outland, Metroidvania style exploration, the tricky physics of flying an alien spacecraft, what looks to be pretty hellacious difficulty, and music by Norwegian metal band Dimmu Borgir. I have never listened to them, but my girlfriend hates them. Sounds like a ringing endorsement!
Yeah, this isn't even a trailer. It's a straight up music video, and I ain't mad about it. To be completely honest, I haven't played an Assassin's Creed game since the first. Not because I don't enjoy them, they look like a good time. I had fun watching a friend slaughter random Italian nobles, just never got around to doing it myself. Can anyone tell me why Ezio is having hallucinations of Altair? Did he slip himself some of his own poison?
Though whenever an Assassin's Creed game releases a new trailer, I'm all over it. They always have incredibly high production value and use perfectly eclectic music to compliment the action. So why would the trailer for Assassin's Creed: Revelations be any different?
Gameplay looks like typical Assassin's Creed. Ezio uses smoke bombs, zip-lines with his new wrist hooks, destroys some ships with a flamethrower, parkours around, and generally just kicks everything's ass. Par for the course for Mr. Auditore. As you would expect the action is fast and smooth, and the graphics are beautiful. The real question for Revelations though, is what the hell is going on with Desmond?
It's been a well publicized complaint that Kinect requires a huge chunk of room real estate to operate at its best. Unfortunately, we don't all live in mansions, leaving many of us with our backs pressed uncomfortably against walls to fully fit into the Kinect's field of vision, which is a recommended 8 to 9 feet away from the device. It was a huge pain in the ass for us with smaller living spaces, and pretty much made the Xbox motion device an impossibility to use in the limiting confines of Japanese households. As an answer to Kinect's greedy requirements, Nyko has created the simplest yet most ingenius peripheral; a pair of clip on glasses.
Zoom is a set of lenses that clip on over the Kinect's sensors and effectively reduce the required area by 40 percent. 9 feet becomes approximately 4 feet, which is a prayer answered for those who wanted in on the body-flailing fun, but don't have the suggested space, and are unwilling to move around furniture like Microsoft suggests. Feng shui is more important than motion gaming, isn't it?
Zoom for Kinect requires no installation, no batteries, no power cord, or anything else. It just clips onto your sensor and is ready to rock. Kudos to Nyko for making something so simple yet so useful. Of course, there's no guarantee that the thing will actually work, or if we'll have to pay $50 for piece of plastic, but the idea is promising. We'll give you more news as we get it.
Shortly after the release of the surprisingly well received Prey, it was announced a sequel was already in development by Human Head Studios. After the announcement, Prey seemed to have gone dark, until earlier this year when a live action viral was released to stir up some interest in the series. With E3 in full effect, you better believe we have a trailer and gameplay.
Prey 2 does away with some of the staples from the original; portals, the Native American influence, and protagonist Tommy. You play as former Air Marshall Killian Samuels, a bounty hunter with access to an impressive amount of alien tech and weaponry, to be employed while tracking bounties, both dead and alive. The world is a beautiful neon-soaked piece of the future, with terrain that's as tricky as it is modern. Navigating via parkour is your second best friend, right behind your armaments.
As of now, Prey 2 looks like just another first person shooter. The aspects that made the original so unique have seemingly been stripped from the sequel, so I'm unsure about what will make it stand out from the crowd. Regardless, the art and weapon design look to be getting things right, which is a step in the right direction.
I know it's just another CGI trailer, but at least it offers more than just pretty colors! Overstrike is Insomniac Games' first dealing with a multiplatform title. It's based on a team of four super spies with over the top style and over the topper gadgets. The characters seem well thought out and smart. Cool weapons are on display, as well as cool senses of humor. That's about all I can gather.
If I were a gambling man, I'd say Overstrike will end up being a four player online cooperative first/third person shooter with a strong focus on team tactics. In addition to having their own unique personality, each character will have a unique set of skills that will help get the ahead in increasingly hairy situations. Maybe there will be some sort of skill tree where you can assign experience points to unlock new skills depending on how you want to play one of the four lively characters. You would play this type of game, right?
Or it could be a browser based 8-bit platformer. Who knows. Either way, if the trailer is anything to go on (which it shouldn't be, but we don't learn our lessons), Overstrike is one to keep your eyes on.
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 4:03PM 
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