TGS 2010: Asura's Wrath, or God Hand of War

You know how much I love games that blend religious themes with eight ounces of mindfuck to create something unique, right? That's exactly why Asura's Wrath is giving me goosebumps. 

Capcom has collaborated with CyberConnect2 (developers of .hack and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja) to develop the third-person action title which looks to be loosely based on the ultra-violent past times of Buddhist deities, you know, when they're not busy being in Nirvana. Nice!

The action is as we like it: flashy, ridiculous and overdone, with the seemingly immortal protagonist running through a torrential downpour of spears to unleash divine justice on anything standing between him and his bearded counterpart. And then something amazing happens. Galactic Buddha Finger. Oh, my, GOD. This could be one of gaming's greatest moments, no lie. 

Asura's Wrath looks like a mix of God of War and God Hand. God Hand of War?! Hell yeah. CyberConnect2's influence is clearly visible throughout, and it's nice to see their hyper-stylized action sequences in something aside from a Naruto game for once. I am eagerly anticipating updates for this title, and I'll post 'em as I get 'em.

Asura's Wrath Gallery (6 images)

TGS 2010: Shadows of the Damned introduces Gaming's Holy Trinity

Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, the idealistic creator whose ahead of the curve ideas has spawned titles such as Killer7 and the No More Heroes series. Shinji Mikami, former Capcom ace and mind behind iconic titles such as the Resident Evil series, and more recently, the hotly anticipated Vanquish. Akira Yamaoka, one of gaming's greatest composers, known primarily for his one of a kind work in the Silent Hill series. 

These three fine gentlemen have decided to form gaming's Holy Trinity of sorts, pooling their talents to create Shadows of the Damned, an action/horror title where the protagonist dives into a world controlled by demons to get his girlfriend back. The premise may be a little cliche, but any game that involves one of either Suda, Mikami, or Yamaoka deserves to be noticed. This game, involving all three of them, will have the chance to reach epic proportions. 

Shadows of the Damned's release trailer has a little bit of everything for fans of the above. It feels like a mix of Silent Hill and Resident Evil 4, with a bit of some grindhouse films thrown in for awesome. Gaming's Holy Trinity, with EA Games behind them, looks to make a huge splash in 2011, and hopefully, far beyond.

Shadows of the Damned gallery (5 images)

TGS 2010: Dead Rising 2: Case West

I can see it now. Mr. Greene meets Mr. West in a locked room. They shake hands and exchange summarized stories of zombie debauchery. Suddenly, zombies start to pound the door down. Chuck gets to the workbench with duct tape and the nearest household items to create something ludicrous yet deadly. Frank slots a fresh memory card into his camera and adjusts the shutter speed. The zombies burst into the confined safe room, screaming bloody murder. Chuck Greene unleashes just that on the mindless horde with Frank West watching his back, and shooting the whole scene to get bonus dramatic PP. Awesome.

Last week, Capcom teased us with some evidence of Frank fighting along side Chuck in a tale recounted by fictional denizen of Fortune City, Johnny Pipes. Now in the midst of a loaded first day at Tokyo Game Show, Capcom shows us their hand with Dead Rising 2: Case West. 

The downloadable 360 exclusive, Case West takes place after the events of Dead Rising 2. Capcom is totally getting ahead of themselves here, talking about a DLC epilogue before the actual game has even released. Talk about being proactive, I love it! 

I've yet to hear whether or not Frank West will be playable via co-op (keep your fingers crossed) but hopefully Capcom will allow the players to control the much requested star of the original Dead Rising.

In related news, Capcom has announced they have purchased Blue Castle Studios, the development team behind Dead Rising 2, and they will now be known as Capcom Games Studio Vancouver. I guess that means they did a helluva job on the upcoming zombiefest. Congrats on your assimilation, Blue Castle! 

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?

Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim Avoids Alliterative Awesomeness.. With a 012?

Breaking news; the PSP exclusive Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim has decided to forgo it's impressive run at gaming alliteration world records by throwing in the numbers 012. 

The follow up to the fun yet faulted frantic fighting Final Fantasy fan service title of two years ago has appeared and alluded to an assortment of added appearances. Currently confirmed cutting-edge characters constitute XIII's Lightning, and personal preference, IV's Kain.

Square Enix slips the teaser site settled by scant stories, however habituated with heaps of harmonic heroism. Several supplemental screenshots display detailed definition of particular protagonists antecedent appearances. With Tokyo Game Show looming lavishly, Square Enix will undoubtedly unfold increased information in due time.

Numbers can't alliterate, homey.

via Andriasang

Left 4 Dead Space 2

EA's multiplayer reveal for Dead Space 2 looks pretty good, if not familiar. It's basically Left 4 Dead's multiplayer to a T. Remeber that mutation where gameplay was nothing but special infected versus the four survivors? Yeah, that's pretty much Dead Space 2's multiplayer.

You'll play as a band of Isaacs also known as the engineers, and face off against a collective of Necromorphs, such as the agile, close-range pouncing type, the long-ranged noxious ooze spitting type, and the portly, mid-ranged vomit type. Seem familiar? Of course not. It's not a knock, the L4D multiplayer was great fun with a band of friends, with the added gore and Dead Space's feel and story, engineers vs. necromorphs should be a blast. The objective based versus component will retain many of the gameplay intricacies from the campaign mode, so you wont feel gimped trying to take down a pack of player controlled necromorphs.

We've been assured that there will be several multiplayer game types, meaning hopefully we'll see some free-for-all deathmatches where engineers can dismember engineers. Make sure you check out GameTrailers TV for the full rundown of DS2's multi. 

Samurai Dead Rising Features Zombies, Katana, LSD

Capcom's incredible juggernaut push for Dead Rising 2 continues. Most companies would probably cut back the marketing after the incredibly well received Dead Rising: Case 0 broke Xbox Live's week one sales records. Capcom on the other hand seems only to intensify things, now with a tie in called Samurai Dead Rising.

Heavy hitting artist and animator Norio Shioyama, whose massive body of work includes such classics as InuYasha, Armored Trooper Votoms, and The Centurions lends his talents to the psychedelic katana brandishing action of our nameless hero as he mows down the undead in stylistic monochrome. The tripped out visuals are accompanied by a slamming drum and bass selection that fits the art style perfectly. And though the thought provoking clip comes in just a shade under three minutes, it seems that there will be more Samurai Dead Rising shorts in the future. Awesome.

With Dead Rising 2 already cemented as one of Fall's hot releases, the timing of Capcom's zombie slicing samurai skits makes me wonder if there are greater forces at work here. A tease of taking Dead Rising 3 to the feudal period, or maybe samurai DLC? We already know Chuck Greene has proficiency with a katana, as preordering  from Gamestop nets you a ninja gi and blade, unlocking a whole new set of assassin moves and animations. Maybe we can expect some samurai garb and a zombie infested bamboo forest sometime down the line. 

Whatever the case may be, this Samurai Dead Rising thing has the opportunity to be something epic. Make it hap-pon, Capcom.

Enos Still Lives

15 years ago on this day, I fell in love. On September 9th, 1995, children in North America were introduced to the Playstation gaming system, one of the most influential and iconic pieces of entertainment technology of our time. 

From their inexperienced beginnings, Sony has developed the Playstation brand into a powerhouse, worthy of it's spot in the annuls of gaming history. While I may not agree with all of Sony's choices for Playstation throughout the years, I had an undying infatuation with my PSX. I played games, I played CDs, I played the music from my games as if they were CDs, I modded it, I stole games, I broke it, I bought it again.. Endless memories of what I thought was the greatest thing ever, a title freshly inherited from my Sega Saturn.

What may possibly be the strongest factor that roped me in to Playstation, that had me calling every Funcoland within a 50 mile radius, what had me pestering my weary father to drive me out to strange, small towns in attempts to acquire the mystical gray box, was the marketing.

Who the hell is Enos? What am I not ready for? Enos Lives and UR Not E (with the seething red tone of the capital E burning itself into your subconscious) were two of the great marketing slogans that amazed me as a kid (along with "CROSSFIRE!") and maybe part of the reason why I appreciate marketing so much today. Ready (red E) Ninth of September and You Are Not Ready marked the beginning of a new era for gaming, as well as Sony's incredible marketing of it's Playstation that continues today with Kevin Butler and miscellaneous flashes of ingenuity. 

While friends and strangers alike accuse me of being an Xbox fanboy, in my heart and in my mind, Playstation has it's own special place. PSX and PS2 helped to mold me as the die hard gamer I am today. And even though I've had my complaints with the PS3, and it's taken me a while to warm up to it, I'm grateful Sony is continuing it's tradition of quality devices, entertaining games, and fun marketing.

Happy birthday, Playstation.

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.

Preview: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Is there something wrong with me? People within the game journalism game are game for gushing over this game. Me, not so much. Don't get me wrong, it looks good. The action seems fun, the graphics are incredible, but something about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is rubbing me the wrong way.

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