Dust: An Elysian Tail: Mewtroidvania

Anthropomorphism is a topic of complete polarization for me. On one hand, I was raised on the likes of Thundercats, Ducktales, TMNT and the like, enjoying every second of it even to this day. On the other, things like My Little Pony and the bronies it has spawned completely incenses me to the point of maniacal rage. Dust: An Elysian Tail is wearing anthropomorphism proudly, as evidenced by the titles play on words. Part of me thought to completely avoid this, what could have been a total ooze-fest of cutesy drivel targeted toward the young, dumb, and full of.. Fur. My other half can't say no to a hack-and-slash inspired Metroidvania action RPG. So I dove in, and well, surprise surprise.

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A Visual Overview of Halo 4's Spartan Specializations

Halo 4 is going to be pretty good, innit? It's already all but secured my $100 buy-in for the Limited Edition, which will give me access to all these beautiful Specializations, and give you access to the green eyes of jealously as I thoroughly trounce you. The Specializations are Spartan sub-classes of sorts, allowing the player an extra 10 levels per Spec, which will unlock additional pieces of armor, weapon skins, and perks for use in Halo 4's competitive multiplayer modes, known as War Games, as well as the episodic cooperative mode, Spartan Ops.

Check out the visual rundown of the eight total Specializations below. Of these, only Pioneer and Wetworks will be available at launch - unless you pre-order the Limited Edition, which will unlock all Specs right from the start. Sorry regular edition folk, your no-frills asses will have to wait for 343 Industries to release the 6 Specs that you miss at launch on their own accord. Suckaz.

Which Specialization will you choose? Halo 4 releases on November 4. Pre-order before it's too late, and trust me, it will be too late very soon.

Halo 4 Specializations Gallery view

Deadlight: Wake Up Dead

I am no longer a fan of the zombies, and very rarely do I find myself wanting to play a game that uses the mindless undead as its dominant trait. In an odd turn of events, I felt compelled by new jack developer Tequila Works' initial release, Deadlight. Maybe it's because I've been dying to play a fresh new 2D action platformer for months? Maybe the bits of jumping and climbing punctuated by motion comic interludes worthy of a graphic novel was too much to turn down? Maybe she's born with it? Maybe it's Maybelline. Whatever it could have possibly been, I jumped into the deep, dark, zombie abyss with a 360 controller and high hopes.

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Cult Classic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gets HD Treatment

Ora vs. Muda: the eternal struggle

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 Battle made 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. 

 

Dishonored: Six Million Ways to Die, or Not

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. 

Pre-order Dishonored from Amazon

Inversion: Gears of Bore

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?

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It Ain't Summer 'til The Summer of Arcade Says So

Xbox LIVE Arcade's Summer of Arcade promotions are always a good time. How they work are, Microsoft pools together a bunch of games, releases them weekly, and gives you a portion of your spending back if you buy multiple titles. There are a total of 5 games to be released between July and August, and a few of them look pretty damn snazzy. As your special bonus, should you buy any 3 of the Summer of Arcade titles, you'll get a whopping 400 Microsoft points back. Hooray for incentives! Breakdown to follow:

• July 18 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - 1200 MSP
• July 25 - Wreckateer - 800 MSP
• August 1 - Deadlight - 1200 MSP
• August 8 - Hybrid - 1200 MSP
• August 15 - Dust: An Elysian Trail - 1200 MSP

Of the above, the two I'm most interested in getting play time with are Hybrid and Deadlight. Hybrid because of its dummyproof-however-refreshing take on the cover-based shooter genre, that kind of looks like the bastard child of Halo and Gears. Sure it sounds like every other game in the over-saturated genre, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. And Deadlight mostly due to its wonderful zombie-meets-Limbo aesthetic, gorgeous visuals, animation, and strong focus on delivering a satisfying narrative with comic inspired cut scenes. Trailers for the two are included below. What do you got on these, folks?

A Few Seconds of Mark of the Ninja Impresses

What we have here is a very short sample of what we can expect from Mark of the Ninja, Klei Entertainment's next release. On the heels of Shank 2, which I expected so much more from, Klei has decided to shift gears to the rarely explored 2D stealth genre, which seems a bit illogical following two B-movie inspired gore fests. Before I sound too much like I'm complaining, I should point out I'm melting at every sight and sound of Mark of the Ninja. Why? Let's see:

1. Ninjas

2. Choose your own play style: kill em all or kill no one at all

3. Klei's incredible signature art and animation

4. Ninjas

5. Ridiculously ambient soundtrack, judging from the trailer

Many E3 accounts have pegged Mark of the Ninja as one of the best looking titles on the show floor, a fact that I'm not willing to dispute at this time. Thankfully, the title's release is right around the corner, with a solid date of 'Summer 2012' which I'm sure means September sometime. Hurry up and download to my Xbox, Ninja!

Max Payne 3: The Return of the Gangsta

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?

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MercurySteam Makes History with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

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.