Outland is Gonna Be Big

What do you get when you combine classic side-scrolling action with elements of cult shooter Ikaruga? An orgasm. What else? Outland, a beautiful bash of genres that features killer gameplay and an intriguing story. Developer Housemarque has done well to keep information about Outland under wraps, but what little we know thus far sounds like good stuff.

Set in Mexico City, Outland's protagonist is experiencing nightmarish visions that have impacting his ability to function in daily life. When traditional forms of therapy and medicine fail, out hero seeks help from a shaman who lies deep within the forests of the Yucatan. From here, you find out you're involved in something bigger than nightmares, you get a sword, and you slash the life out of enemies five times your size, all while platforming, switching polarities, and avoiding 'bullet hell' death traps. Or in other words, Saturday night. 

This game is gonna be big. Don't believe me? Watch the video. Aside from the narrator's terrible voice acting, good things all around, I'm sure you'll agree.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Steps Up the Dev Diary Game

It seems like I gush about AC:B every time I write about it. The game looks like an assassin's arsenal full of fun, with a deep and interesting campaign, a fun and involving multiplayer, and kick ass trailers. Developer's diaries on the other hand, while informative, oft times pander more to giving the developers face and voice over time, at the expense of making them feel detached, than truly showing more to the fans. Well, look at what one of my favorite things of late did to one of my hated things of late. 

Ubisoft has been just unconscious with it's promoting of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood so far. Lights out killing it with well produced trailers and enjoyable videos. So Ubisoft brings it's slick production to the dev diary game and absolutely tears it a new one, making it seem more like a History Channel original than a look in at an upcoming game. It's nice how they involve the developers to make them seem like part of the Brotherhood, rather than relegating them to talking heads who are tied to the project. Nicely done, Ubisoft.

Brotherhood's latest dev diary is making me look forward to the next installation, as opposed to making me want to forget these things exist. So, who wants to set odds on whether this style will pick up or not?

Let's Talk Outland

In what, to me, looked like one of the most intriguing titles to come out of PAX '10, Outland has landed on people's radars in a big way. The Ubisoft published XBLA and PSN downloadable features a side-scrolling, platforming world populated by beam saber wielding silhouettes, Shadow of the Colossus styled bosses, and vibrant colors.

The real surprise here, is that Outland borrows it's main gameplay concept from the cult shoot'em up classic, Ikaruga. To sum up the mechanic, I paraphrase Wikipedia's Ikaruga page:

Only attacks of an opposite polarity can kill the player. Same-colored attacks are absorbed. Switching the character's polarity also changes his color, and attacking an enemy using the opposite-polarity is the primary method of inflicting damage.

That about sums it up, loosely. While I'm sure there will be plenty of differences and added complexities, Outland looks pretty much like a side-scrolling Ikaruga, and I ain't mad about that. Developers Housemarque have confirmed that we'll have moments of bullet hell, where projectiles of different colors infest every piece of glorious HD screen space, leaving the player with no option but to color shift, dodge, and man the fuck up. 

As what could be the greatest testament to gaming hand-eye coordination, shoot 'em ups have never really had mainstream popularity. Though for those of us that have a dirty little secret love for the underutilized genre, Outland looks to keep us content with it's wonderful shoot 'em up heart and it's sexy side-scrolling body.