While many folks may have already anchored in Boston for this weekends PAX East festivities, we at OBG haven't left our base of New York yet. Why? Because we take our sweet ass time (and because I can't call out sick at my day job!), but shit gets real tonight!
Since we love our readers as much as we do, we'll be busting our butts covering as much as we can for y'all. Make sure you check back nightly for analysis of the awesomeness we happen upon. For the impatient ones, follow @itsOBG on Twitter, as we'll be talking shit about PAX East in 140 characters or less. Timely updates, artsy photos, wonderous splendor, you name it!
Can't make it to Boston but got something in particular you're dying to see? Holla at us, we'll be your eyes and ears and get it back to you, no palm-greasing required. We got your backs!
I'm getting such a kick out of Heroes' Matt Parkman featured as a character in L.A. Noire. If you're unfamiliar with Heroes, Matt Parkman (who I hated, by the way) was a police detective with the power to read and later control minds. He also had a rocky relationship with his wife. So in L.A. Noire, the likeness of Mr. Parkman is just a normal dude with the tables turned on the situations I was most used to seeing him in when Heroes was on TV and not terrible. He's clearly uncomfortable being interrogated about possibly having an affair. Where yo' powers at now, sucka?!
With that out of the way, we can talk about the actual game, which is looking more interesting. The interrogation scenes appear to be a neat -- and integral -- part of gameplay. This is good, it's something to set it aside from being just another Grand Theft Auto clone. With more situations of investigation and interrogation, and less GTA-styled running, gunning, driving, and relationship jobs shoe-horned in, L.A. Noire stands a better chance. At least in my eyes.
The only problem I see with the path Team Bondi and Rockstar is taking, is that players will be alienated. As overdone as the GTA style is, I suppose it's what people want. After all, look how incredibly successful Red Dead Redemption was, being pretty much a reskinned Grand Theft Auto IV. L.A. Noire is trying to blur the line between movies and games, in Heavy Rain fashion, although perhaps less obviously. Today's gamer is immature and uncultured. There was no middle ground for Heavy Rain, the public either loved it or hated it. People don't want a movie experience in their game, they want blood, headshots, and nuclear explosions. Amirite?
Is the average gamer ready for investigation and interrogation? We'll find out when L.A. Noire ships in North America on May 17th.
It may not be the most compelling competitive multiplayer we've seen but it's still early. I'm sure Insomniac will figure out some unique game modes to throw in to make the multiplayer in Resistance 3 feel like something special. Unfortunately they've already gotten off on the wrong hoof, announcing at last week's GDC that 60-player will be scrapped in favor for the more traditional 16-player matches. Weak!
Though the game mode in this footage is vanilla, some of the weapons -- and their resulting effects -- look pretty damn sweet, I must say. Resistance 3 is due out for PS3 on September 6 in North America, with a multiplayer demo sometime before then.
Waste of flesh, is what you all are. Shuma Gorath's words, not mine. Hard not to love the one-eyed cockiness of a hideous octopoid demon. And if that's not your cup of tea, you can roll with the sleek humanoid curves of Jill Valentine. Marvel vs. Capcom 3's first batch of DLC characters has something for everyone!
March 15 is the due date for these two, if that digital currency is burning a hole in your console, you'll only have to wait a bit longer.
Another World -- or as I, as well as other North American gamers have come to know it, Out of This World -- is a game I remember fondly for kicking the shit out of me on my MS-DOS computer in the early 90s, when I wasn't playing Commander Keen or Dr. SBAITSO.
Good news everyone! Out of This World will make a grand return to confound a new generation of gamer, who probably never heard of this classic, and do nothing these days but play Black Ops. Fucking newbs.
Slated for iOS (iPhone, iPod, and iPad), developer DotEmu is handling the remake, and has been given the blessing of creator Eric Chahi to move forward and get this thing out the door. It's not clear whether or not this is a re-make from the ground up or just a re-release with HD graphics, but I'll be overjoyed to get my hands on Out of This World either way. I remember having problems beating it as a kid, so I have a score to settle, and I'm sure many of you original gangstas do as well.
The latest trailer for Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is supposedly about the 108th Task Force, who are probably the crew of people you work with while you pilot dozens of flying machines built with the specific intent of blowing the shit out of other flying machines. Not saying that the video doesn't accomplish its mission, but after watching it, I really don't care any more for my partners in cinematic modern-air-warfare.
I do however, care increasingly for getting my sweaty paws on Ace Combat: Assault Horizon so I can ignore all my orders from commanding officers and wingmen and just go blowing shit up while doing barrel rolls, huge loops, and flying 3 yards from the side of a building. That is the proper way to play Ace Combat games, is it not? Choppers, fighters, and bombers, oh my!
Mortal Kombat, aside from being the grandfather of game gore, will always find a way to add something funny and funky into its games. Friendships, Babalities, kart racing, battle chess, or Reptile and Scorpion talking the parts of Liu Kang and Kung Lao, always something funky I tells ya.
The Tower Mode in the upcoming Mortal Kombat, aside from offering an incredible challenge by way of having to pass 300 freaking challenges, is going to infuse NetherRealm's gorefest with its quota of wackiness. Fight armless, fight headless, fight upside down, throw grenades into a bucket, play the slots or Three Card Monte with severed heads. What haven't Mr. Boon and company thought of?
If you're a member of the illustrious handful of PSN Plus members, you'll be able to try a demo of Mortal Kombat on March 8. That's tomorrow, bitches! Don't fret, for those of you who aren't plus-rollers, you'll get the demo next week, March 15.
Sorry Xbox 360 owners, no set date for your demo yet. Suckers!
Games like GUN, Red Dead Revolver, and Call of Juarez were the only window gamers had into the old west, leaving fans of the genre stranded in a desert with no water in sight. Before Rockstar and Red Dead Redemption went and made the western game all mainstream, the best we had might have been Sunset Riders.
Since RDR 'revolutionized' the old west, it seems like not many titles set in the same period will ever measure up to the commercial and critical success John Marston brought to the folks at Rockstar. Kudos then to Call of Juarez for trying something new, and moving in a different direction. Though it may be on a bit of a touchy subject, you don't win big by playing the same safe hand over and over again.
Call of Juarez: The Cartel continues to bill itself as a western in the vein of the two preceding entries in the series, but the wild west has changed. The cartels are the new outlaws, and cash, drugs, and guns are the new gold. In The Cartel, you can take control of one of three 'bad' cops to take down drug lords from Mexico to Los Angeles.
The Cartel is said to have three-player online co-op, three unique campaign stories and all that, but really that's not important. What is important, is the bitching and moaning that 'people' (ie. near-sighted journalists and left-wing politicians) are doing in regards to the latest Call of Juarez, seeing as how Mexico is in a bad way right now, thanks in part to the real cartels.
To any of the detractors, I say find something better to do with your power of state or power of media. Lay off, let games be games, and go fight the problems you have with the latest Call of Juarez game at its source: real life. To developers Techland, and publishers Ubisoft, keep doing what you're doing. Call of Juarez: The Cartel looks like it might have some promise, please don't fuck it up on account of over-sensitive blowhards who attack the games industry to make themselves feel tough.
Also, please don't turn Call of Juarez: The Cartel into something Kane and Lynch-like. Thanks!
Let me admit, when I first read about The Gunstringer, a Kinect title where you play as a skeleton cowboy, shooting stuff with your fingers, I promptly went to my toilet to drop a deuce, finished up, and went on with my day.
I should have given more credit to Twisted Pixel.
As more media for The Gunstringer has made its way out I've warmed up to it a bit. After watching a full 15 minutes of the game, I'm 90% sold. While the premise is weird, and the gameplay doesn't seem incredibly addictive or complex, Twisted Pixel's trademark style and humor shines through to give this Xbox LIVE Arcade title a bit of a 'DO WANT' edge.
The question is, how does one price a Kinect XBLA game?
There's no way around it, Infamous 2 looks like a jolt of fun administered right to your brain in the most unorthodox ways imaginable. Developers Sucker Punch have chosen to omit multiplayer in favor of creating a truly immersive single player tale. Bummer, innit?
Fear not fans of PlayStation 3 exclusives, Infamous 2 is attempting to win you back and keep you playing with the latest announcement of user created content. While it won't be as deep as Little Big Planet 2's user-creation modes (really though, what is?), it will surely be a great way to extend your hours logged as the shocking Mr. MacGrath.
It looks as if user-creation is 'limited' to creating unique missions in various modes with various goals, such as stealth, defense, search and destroy, races, and so on, but that in itself will give creative gamers plenty to work with. Once you've created your masterpiece, throw it on PSN and let the rest of the world suffer through your impossible user-created mission. Really though, why did you have to make it so difficult?
Amped for Infamous 2? Your day is about to get even better with the news that a limited beta will be available to a few lucky gamers to jump in Cole's stylish shoes and drop a beating on some very well deserving individuals. Check back on March 14 for details.
Friday, March 11, 2011 at 1:30AM 
