Retro City Rampage Has Good News and Bad News

So which do you want first, the good or the bad? Fuck it, you're getting the bad news first, so deal with it! Retro City Rampage has been delayed until summer 2011. Dammit! That's an awful long time to wait for what looks like the greatest 80's nostalgia orgy since The Expendables.

To make up for the delay, the game will see some additions, such as more missions and extra playable characters. The Xbox 360 version will also include dopeness such as widescreen support, character creation, video replay, and challenge modes. Wait, did I just say Xbox 360?! Yes, that's your good news, the game has been officially announced for Xbox Live Arcade. As if the nifty header image wasn't clue enough. 

Actually, I guess if you're a Wii fan you get double bad news. The Wiiware version of Retro City Rampage wont release until Fall 2011. Creator Brian Provinciano apologizes for the delay, but a dude's gotta eat, and apparently Wii exclusivity wont pay the bills. Sorry Wiitards!

via Destructoid

Be the Multipurpose Weapon in Crysis 2

I never played Crysis, mostly because I'm not much of a computer gamer. I just cant afford to be shelling out a couple hundred a year to assure that I'm always getting the most out of the games I play. No game illustrated this point better than Crysis, which was so cutting edge that it was necessary to have a super computer to play it.

Crysis 2 however, is a different story. Maybe it caught my eye because it'll be available for PS3 and Xbox 360, or maybe Crytek just made a better game than the first. Whatever it is, it's working, because the game looks sick. The latest trailer depicts the different ways you can handle a situation and the different powers your nanosuit gives you. Use your strength to attack enemies with the environment, or throw them off cliffs, your speed to parkour in and out of battle and power-slide under enemy fire, and your stealth to silenty handle the unsuspecting. Add a splash of color and a frantic pace and you have what could be a very, very good title.

Fez Challenges Your Perception of Reality

As the next big indie game, Fez has been on our minds for quite some time now. Each Friday, developers Polytron have posted a little teaser to those eagerly anticipating the perception bending platformer. This past friday, we got one of our biggest teases yet; the game's first two and a half minutes.

While the footage may not feature gripping action or jaw dropping cut scenes, it sets the stage for what to expect from Fez with two simple sentences; "reality is perception" and "perception is subjective". Mind = blown.

No release date yet, but with the next 'Fez Friday' falls on Christmas eve, so we may get a gift from Polytron then.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is all About the Crack

Crack is a highly addictive illegal substance that will make you do stupid things in order to get a steady intake of it's fix, often sold in vials. The term crack can also be applied with similar definition to non-illegal substances. The Capcom's Versus series is crack. Therefore it's only fitting that Marvel vs. Capcom 3's story trailer has the universe's combatants fighting over a vial of the good stuff. 

I know what you're thinking. Let me dispel your confusion by saying, no, you are not crazy. I did say Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and story in the same sentence. Renowned comic author Frank Tieri is penning the story, which is a good indication that all the fighting will have some sort of underlying meaning for once in a Versus game. 

REVIEW: Vanquish

Space marines, cover-based battle, and quick-time events are some of the most cliched ideas in the action genre. Vanquish attempts to build on the mundane by allowing you to spring out of cover and slide a hundred meters forward on your knees, while skillfully picking off your opposition with sniper rifle headshots, and at the end of your jet-propelled dash, breakdancing into an evasive roll, before dashing up a 30 foot tall robot, to punch his head off, clean. Sure it sounds good in theory, but can Vanquish pull it off in practice?

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Storm, C.Viper are Marvel vs. Capcom 3's Latest Challengers

The hotly anticipated Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reveals the latest additions to its ever expanding roster. Storm, who looks good in her new duds, returns with a similar move set to her MvC2 incarnation, now jacked up and looking fly. While I'm not the biggest fan of C. Viper, her inclusion pretty much solidifies her appearance in Street Fighter games to come. Love or hate, her rush and attack move set should translate well in the Versus world. 

This round of reveals seems to have answered the guy at New York Comic Con who complained that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was shaping up to be a sausage fest. With a rumored 8 unrevealed characters remaining, Capcom will keep gamers teased and interested right up to release date.

Dead Space 2 Will Impress You, One Way or Another

EA has blessed us with a new trailer for the slick and incredibly disturbed looking Dead Space 2. Between trailers and gameplay videos, Dead Space 2 is giving gamers plenty to get excited about, but it is inevitable that there will be doubters. For those of us who aren't yet properly hyped for the January 25th release, EA is offering an early Christmas gift and not change your mind.

You can download the Dead Space 2 demo for your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 on December 21. I have a feeling there will be tons engineers and necromorphs being dismembered very soon.

Indie Games Winter Uprising Will Kick Your Ass on the Cheap

Remember Xbox LIVE Arcade's Summer of Arcade, the warm-weather promotion that so awesomely stretched our $15 dollar investments on games like Limbo, Castlevnia HD, and Monday Night Combat? Well it looks like XBLA's oft-overlooked little brother is trying to one up the summer by warming up December.

Xbox Live's indie games are often ignored by the greater public. It's probably because there are so many games to wade through, with most of them being pretty terrible. Though there are plenty of dope, inexpensive indie games, they're buried under the crap, almost impossible to find.

The Indie Games Winter Uprising is trying to change that. A group of solid independent developers have come together and are giving their upcoming projects some well deserved publicity in an attempt to school the uninitiated on what good indie titles are about. There are some killer games featured, most scheduled to drop at some point this week, and none will cost more than $5. For such a diverse selection of great looking games, 80 to 400 MS points is a steal. I've been waiting for Alpha Squad and ZP2KX, but some of these other games look new to me. By new I mean fresh, and by fresh I mean I'll probably download all of them.

Right now, 3 of the scheduled 14 featured titles are already on the Marketplace; Break Limit, Epic Dungeon, and Hypership Out of Control. They're only 80 MS points ($1) each, so I suggest you give them all a shot if you're bored of your current games line up. Find out more about the Indie Games Winter Uprising here.

Xbox LIVE Rewards Program Pays You Back For Doing Stuff

Sign up. There's no catch or hidden fees or anything, and it's open to all Xbox LIVE users, meaning the Silver members finally get some love too, instead of being relegated to redheaded step-child status, like so often the case in the past. 

The program is very vaguely described as allowing you to "earn Microsoft points for doing things they already do on Xbox LIVE." Obviously we're not going to be getting free points for playing games and watching Netflix all day. Points will be earned by renewing LIVE subscriptions, activating Netflix (for the first time only? Lame), taking monthly surveys, and purchasing select Marketplace content. Select content? I don't like how that sounds.

Regardless, it will be nice to earn 10 and 20 points here and there, when you probably would be spending money on these things even without the rewards program. Now if only we can get some sort of GamerScore rewards program.

via Major Nelson

Yakuza Creator's Futuristic Shooter is Binary Domain

Wake up fool!

The ultra-tanned, hostess magnet Toshihiro Nagoshi, best known as the creator of Sega's prolific Yakuza series, has thrown his skin flakes into the futuristic shooter ring. With an emphasis on squad-based tactics, Binary Domain is set in a torn-down Tokyo circa the year 2080, where it's humans versus the machines, baby.

The trailer, which is quite lengthy, foregos gameplay for the trusty old cinematic sequences, chock full of the same old played out odds and ends. Robots that look like T-800s, a torn down Tokyo, and a very bland group of characters, including a Ben Affleck look-a-like and the token black man.

"When you hear sci-fi you may think of cold, clinical environments," Nagoshi-san states. "With Binary Domain I wanted to combine this with a deep human drama. The keyword we have in mind for this project is 'Life'. I wanted to make something that will be accepted by both the Japanese and Western markets, and this fundamental theme is something everyone knows but which the full extent of can be difficult to grasp." 

You gotta give it to the man, he talks a good one. Human drama is not something that's even remotely tied to shooters, but fans of Yakuza will tell you, despite its action, the well done drama element is the game's main draw. As for appealing to the both Japanese and Western gamers, well.. The hoorah-heavy, testosterone-laced man's men we're looking at aren't typically well received by Japanese gamers. You make one look like Ben Affleck, and the other a racial stereotype, and Japanese acceptance will be sure to plummet even further, no doubt. We'll see.

I admire what Nagoshi-san has done with the Yakuza series, so I'm half expecting Binary Domain to blossom into something special. If the last chunk of the trailer is any indication, we'll at least be in store for something interesting.