Hey sexy, looking good! No, not you, I'm talking to GTA V, which celebrates its official pre-order availability by releasing the above teaser image. Not much I know, but come next week we'll have the game's second trailer to pick apart and cook up more ridiculous theories about Nico, Claude, CJ returning for more action. Personally, I'd love for Little Jacob to have his own game. Pipe dream, feel me?
The gigantic Kratos statue outside Sony's God of War: Ascension booth
Coming into this year's New York Comic Con, there were only a handful of games I was excited to see, one of which was God of War: Ascension. As a frothy-mouthed supporter of the original trilogy, I know single player will be another visceral, beautiful, face-melting affair, however the addition of multiplayer was a bit of a worry point. Thankfully multiplayer is exactly what Sony had on display on the Javits Center floor, so I was either leaving with soothed nerves or the rage of the Gods.
Disclaimer: like a good Christopher Nolan film, this article will leave a variety of open questions. The kind Sony folks protecting the giant Kratos statue were unwilling to offer answers when questions were posed. Whether or not this was due to my lack of press badge is up for discussion.
We started with some very underwhelming customization options, as I was only able to adjust my avatar in a few simple ways: choice of two very similar helmets, and choice of either mace or sword. My armor was reminiscent of Hercules' and I believe my name was something along the Herculean line, so I assume I was his champion. Can't say for sure because no one would answer my questions! SCEA: 1, OBG: 0.
After the cosmetic options, I was given the opportunity to choose a magical skill and was then forcibly ushered into the game by the Sony employees, who had no desire in fostering my snail-paced menu exploration. Due to this, I may have missed some options which would have been nice to mention here, but such is life. The match started with teams on opposing sides of the map, as is the norm for these games. The battle system felt very much like it did during the campaign of God of War 3, which is welcome. The player is blessed with light and strong attacks - both of which can be modified to special attacks while holding L1. My Spartan (from Sparta, not UNSC) could do everything else expected of Kratos, such as jump, block, evade, parry, throw, all the mundane necessities. There's also a Burst move (speaking in Guilty Gear terms) which knocks your nearest opponents back and recovers a bit of health. Yep, all the tools required to become a God of the arena.
The stage up to play was built as a selection of elevated platforms connected by bridges, ziplines, and hookpoints where 8 warriors fared combat as a gigantic cyclops thrashed the very near background. The game started much as a 4 on 4 deathmatch pit between Spartans and Trojans, but seemed to evolve into an objective piece once the teams realized what what happening. Different points on the map were contested to control the chained cyclops, and when either team held the points, they also held the Gods' favor.
Battle felt surprisingly tight and well polished, almost as if I were playing a single player affair. The action ran smooth in all respects whether 2 or 8 players on screen, with the titanic cyclops thrashing just behind all the while. During battle, prompts were given for various actions, similar to how Kratos dispatches non-player characters in campaign. There are gruesome quick time events during grapples as well as executions to rid yourself of an opponent. The heat of battle was so frantic I often found myself missing these commands, perhaps they are not prominent enough, or maybe I'm too impatient. Either way, I do think the commands could use a little more visibility.
Aside from properly thrashing everything on screen, there are other concerns to take note of. The battlefield is littered with respawning chests which contain magic, health, bonus points and other goodies. There are also powerups to grab for a temporary advantage, all in line with the mythos of course, such as Hermes' boots which give you a speed boost and are simply dashing. My favorite touch to the map are the selection of traps laying about, which are triggered by pulling a switch sitting just within spitting range of the hazard. A pit of spikes greeted me once too many during my session, and only afterwards did I begin paying attention to where I roam and when I engage combat. I'm not sure if the traps caused friendly fire, for obvious reasons. SCEA: 2, OBG: 0.
After each side had hacked, trapped, grappled, platformed, and magicked the Hades out of each other, a weapon of Zeus himself screeched down from Olympus and crashed onto a platform beside the weary cyclops' drowsy head. In the heat of battle and the flurry of 8 player fury, I may have missed what exactly occurred with said spear (SCEA: 3, OBG: 0), but our match was capped with a thrilling cut scene of one of my teammates wielding Zeus's spear and dispatching the cyclops with a clean pierce to the middle of the eye. Sick.
I will never question the integrity of the God of War: Ascension campaign, as my previous experiences have have prepared me for the enjoyment to come. At a time I was concerned about multiplayer, but after my time spent in the old world, my worries have been surprisingly released as red orbs of joy, and now I look forward to more of the multiplayer of the Gods.
During E3 2011, a game called Overstrike was announced via non-gameplay trailer. While details never really surfaced, we were able to surmise that Overstrike had something to do with a team of super-spies, dripping with personality, kicking all kinds of ass amidst colorful backdrops; think Team Fortress 2 meets Borderlands. Nary a shred of information regarding Overstrike released from that day until now. Unfortunately, humor and personality doesn't sell games, or so some of these companies think.
Overstrike has been cannibalized into Fuse, a shell of its former self that puts the focus on third-person shooting action and completely strips every endearing part of the source material. Insomniac Games what the fuck are you thinking? You've taken a new IP that had tons of buzz and made it a grey-brown shoot-and-snore fest. Oh but you can use different types of ammo and work as a team of four players! And what? That's nothing we haven't seen before, in fact it's something we see almost every damn day. Witty dialogue, colorful locales, characters with real personality and a sense of humor? Something gamers rarely see. So what happened? Did the boys at EA drop the hammer on your mockups, squeezing out every inch of life to fit their standards?
Obviously, I'm pissed off about this. Feels like I just finished playing Inversion, one of the most lifeless games I've played in a while, but it looks like Fuse is challenging for that title. Take a look at the Overstrike trailer above and the Fuse trailer below and tell me: do you think these changes have been made for the better?
Admittely, I'm a Transformers geek of Unicronian proportions. I have a collection of Transformers from the 80’s to the present day - both sealed and opened, an Autobots tattoo, and even had figures of Optimus Prime and Arcee in tux and dress atop my wedding cake when I tied the knot. So as you can imagine, being tasked to review this game without bias is a huge undertaking, but here we go..
What kind of bizarre (nyo ho!) world am I living in that I get to blabber about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure twice in the span of a week? Last week's announcement of All-Star Battlemade my pants slightly tighter, and a few days later the deal has been sealed with the announcement of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver.
Let's be honest here, the "HD" is just a smoothing filter processed over the original pixels, but ask me if I give a fuck. Go ahead, ask. NOPE. I don't, I'm just ecstatic to be able to play this brilliant fighting game again with a slew of new features including:
"HD" graphics with the option of playing in the original SD glory
Online matchmaking: choose opponents based on location, skill, connection speed, etc.
Battle Point and Player Point fueled leaderboards
Eight player online lobby, spectator mode included
Save and share match replays
If that's not enough to get you excited, then you clearly never played the game the first go 'round, which was way ahead of its time in just about all respects. And if you haven't, this is a great time to play a ground breaking classic. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. releases for XBLA and PSN on August 21 at the very Capcom price of $20.
Back in the day, I used to stay up all night beating on my friends in the bounteous fighting games Sega's Dreamcast provided. Gods, those were good times. Amongst the fighters, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure stood out for its quirkiness and interesting take on the genre. Much like the 'toon (which was one of the last anime I really enjoyed,) the game was about humans with psychic familiars called Stands, who were at their owner's whim. You could summon them for spot attacks to spruce up combos or fully project them to lash out against your adversary from full-screen length. These mechanics, along with the style, humor, and dope art, made JoJo a winner.
Those years are long past, and I thought I'd never be hyped for another game set in the JoJoverse. Though the manga continued on, game offerings were sparse and did nothing for me when compared to the brilliance of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Imagine my - and the entire industry's - shock when Namco Bandai announced JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Not much has been explained as of yet, but the included trailer speaks volumes, kinda. Gyro Zeppeli rocking the etched grill, gangsta certified.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is being developed by CyberConnect2 (Asura's Wrath, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series) and is due out in 2013 for Japanese PS3s. Namco Bandai, do me this one favor and bring this game over to the States, I will be forever indebted.
News, screens, and footage of Dishonored never fail to disappoint. I haven't seen any other game that looks like it might come close to Arkane's first person stealth action affair except for maybe Halo 4, and I only say that as an extremely biased champion of the Halo series. Last week, Bethesda offered us two sizeable clips of how metal-faced terrorist Corvo Atano gets down, so I wanted to make sure you are all on alert for this wild ride of teleportation, possession, and stabbiness.
Dishonored allows the player to act as they see fit and solve problems with a soft step or the sharp end of a sword, with various means to each end. Feeling stealthy? Teleport up a building and mosey through an open window. Or, possess a freakin' fish and swim in through the sewage system. If living the piscine life doesn't sound appealing, stop time and put a crossbow bolt through 3 simultaneous faces. Or, stick a grenade on a poor sap and gust him out a closed window, showering the world below in shattered glass and flaming limbs. Or just summon a pack of rats to do your bidding. Either way, options are good, and you will have plenty of them come October 9.
A long time ago in a browser far far away, the announcement of Inversion stirred my brain with the potential of premise. Sure, it's a third-person cover based shooter - perhaps the single most overused genre of this generation - but the title looked to mix things up by adding something new to the mix: gravity. Increase or decrease gravity to alter the world before you, to create and destroy. Use it to run up a wall or ceiling before normalizing to what may or may not be the world's natural gravitational pull. Would the additional mechanic be enough to lift a run of the mill brown and grey shooter from the gears of mediocrity?
It seems like it was just a few years ago that I was having my mind blown by the incredible feats of Max Payne. Remedy Software's PC title broke many walls with its gritty tale of horror and industry-changing Bullet Time mechanic that hundreds of games have since reused, with often less than spectacular results. Then, after damn near a decade of silence, Rockstar gives new life to the series with the announcement of Max Payne 3, proving the series to be unkillable much like Max himself. Is the game as old and worn down as its hero as well?
When was the last time we've seen a numbered Castlevania title? It's been a few decades, hasn't it? I suppose Konami has finally found a storyline worth directly continuing and numbering, so congrats MercurySteam for making this ridiculous piece of geek history with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
It ain't nothing but a CG trailer which shows Gabriel Belmont and his lovely perm whipping through a shitload of would-be vampire slayers with his newfound powers of darkness. Also, smoke dragon versus stone colossus. That's new, but it is completely welcome. At trailer's end, Gabe is confronted by a sword-wielding, white-haired defender of light who we can only assume is Castlevania commonplace and dhampiric son of Dracula, Alucard. MercurySteam has taken me for a loop before, so I wouldn't be surprised if our hero is someone completely random, like Soma Cruz or Sean Connery.
Best believe I'm anticipating more information on this joint, and you'll hear me bitching my tits or licking my lips when I get it.
Monday, November 5, 2012 at 8:09PM 
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