Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes Demo Available Tomorrow

Are you a fan of Japanese history and ridiculously over-the-top characters and fighting? Well then use a sick day for work tomorrow, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, the balls-to-the-wall action game loosely based on Japan's feudal era is coming to a PS3 near you.

Samurai Heroes' demo will be available tomorrow, Tuesday September 7th, exclusively on PSN. Sorry Wii owners, you'll have to wait until release day for your fix. Sorry Xbox 360 owners, you'll have to wait until.. Never! This game is not for you! 

The demo will feature two playable warlords of the fifteen-plus available in the retail version of the game. So whether you're the type of person who is happy strictly playing demos, or you've been sitting wide eyed in a dark corner, with a case of the shakes waiting to get your styletastic fix of 16th century Japan, hop onto PSN and give Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes a hack and/or slash tomorrow.

Duke Nukem Forever, Soon?

The first big news out of PAX '10 is that Duke Nukem Forever is alive and well. 2K Games has confirmed the on-again off-again perpetual life-supported title will be released after being tossed in a bin and killed earlier this year. The underdeveloped test tube corpse of Duke Nukem Forever will be placed in Gearbox Software's laboratory, where millions of fans who have been waiting for a decade and a half, hope that a playable game can be salvaged. If Duke Nukem Forever ends up being three quarters of the game Borderlands is, I'll be thrilled.

I never have high hopes for highly publicized projects that start and stop production, die and are resurrected. Sadly, we see it happen a few times, with titles that start off having so much promise, but when they're finally released they're underwhelming shells of their former glory. Duke Nukem 3D could be the title that got me to fully appreciate and love first person shooters, so needless to say, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Forever, for what seems like forever. 

Bastion Rings of the Old School

So this game Bastion looks pretty slick. There's not too much information behind it yet, aside from it being a digital release out sometime in 2011. But this trailer has a lot going for it. The shoegaze music and amazingly beautiful hand-painted art mostly. 

Bastion flooded me with memories of PSX games I used to love. The theme, with its slight western influence, and the character design reminded me of Wild ARMs. The action made me think of Alundra. The colors and art style brought back feelings of Legend of Mana. Not to mention the 3/4 camera angle is such a throwback. 

Epic Yarn Makes Me Feel Like a Cutie Pie

For all the bloodthirsty, action packed, stylized shooting, slashing, and face-mashing that I enjoy, I have an inexplicable soft spot for Kirby. Maybe it's because I love marshmallows? Who knows, but for some reason, Kirby is the fucking man to me. 

So without a doubt, I regress to the goofy, huggable little child I locked away when I turned twenty-one whenever I see Kirby's Epic Yarn. Give the world the gift that is Kirby, and universal peace will reign for a millennia, I kid you not.

If this latest trailer doesn't soothe your inner serial killer and turn you into a overgrown babbling infant, well, there is no hope for you sir. 

Review: Dead Rising: Case 0

Capcom's quirky zombie apocalypse series, Dead Rising, is known for it's happy-go-lucky take on slaughtering the undead, and using anything as a weapon. The first entry in the series was well enough received to warrant a sequel. And while Dead Rising 2 is a little under a month away, Capcom offers fans a chance to whet their necromorph killing whistle with the downloadable prequel, Dead Rising: Case 0. Is the rending of rotting flesh worth five dollars?

Click to read more ...

PSN's Malicious is a Boss Rush

Malicious looks really, really good. The boss-centric gameplay tosses you into the thick of things at the start of each freely selectable map, doing away with stage progression and things of the like. In true Megaman fashion, you're able to select your stage from the get go, acquire defeated boss power-ups, and implement them moving forward to defeat other bosses in the style of Rock, Paper, Scissors. 

While the art is beautiful and the action is visceral, a game primarily consisting boss battles will undoubtedly be on the short side. Thankfully, as a PSN title, Malicious shouldn't cost more than a cool twenty. If this title stays true to form, it looks to be a definite buy.

Malicious will release in Japan later this year. Hopefully it gets ported stateside, for some reason, something about it screams Japan exclusive to me. I hope I'm wrong.

via Andriasang

Assassin's Creed II Action Figure, Brotherhood Gameplay

Purveyors of fine action figure crafting, Neca, are creating quite the name for themselves with their game and comic based toys. I own their Hayabusa, Leonardo, and Kratos figures, all of which I simply love, not only for their detail and articulation, but because the price point lies under twenty bones. 

News of Assassin's Creed II's Ezio (via Kotaku), immortalized by Neca in action figure form, is great for fans of the series and figure collectors alike. Available in both black and white color variants, Neca's Ezio will slay you with his sculpt, style, and sub-Jackson price. That's a lot of class for a little cash, yo.

Keeping on the topic, this Assassin's Creed Brotherhood gameplay demo has circulated the interwebz for a while, but it's fallen to the wayside here at Otaku But Gangsta. I really wanted to put this up to show the dedicated readers of OBG just how dope this title could be if it's potential is realized. Better late than never right? 

Don't let the cult leader drone of the voice over scare you from the appealing game mechanics. It's worth the full watch if you're a fan of the Assassin's Creed series, or even if you've never played any of the titles and are wondering what Brotherhood is all about.

Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Gameplay

Some guy named Hutch got hands on time with Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer. He was kind enough to upload some youtubes with his impressions and observations via voice over commentary. From what he says, it seems like Treyarch has attempted to keep the game a little more balanced than Modern Warfare 2. Shotguns aren't overpowered, damage increasing/mitigating perks (juggernaut, stopping power) are gone, and in Hutch's own words, you need some skill to get kills. Nice.

Aside from the Team Deathmatch, Hutch shows us Wager Mode, in which you have only your primary and melee, no perks, secondaries, or grenades. You start off with a pistol, and for each kill you score, you level up and instantly change weapons. The winner is the first one to get a kill with all 20 weapons in the mode, the last being the fucking sweet ballistic knife. Looks like fun. Also, a quick peek at class creation. 

These are definitely worth watching if you're a CoD fan. While the maps look too much like Modern Warfare 2 (I want to see a jungle map) Hutch says the game plays more like Call of Duty 2, which I've never played, but he made sound like a good thing. 

Updated with the official Wager Game trailer, which details the different modes that make up the Wager Game as a whole. Looks awesome, I have a feeling this may be my game mode of choice. 

Videos are after the break.

Click to read more ...

Vanquish Demo is a Velocity Attack

I wish I could tell you I have a complete grasp of what's going on in the Vanquish demo. I can't, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a hell of a time playing it. I think to comprehend Vanquish in it's entirety, I'd have to be on either coke or speed, and hope my brain would function at the sufficient level of 300%, thus making the game's electric pace seem more like a Sunday morning stroll through Central Park. 

The demo's subtitle is Velocity Attack, and I don't think it can be summed in two words any better that. Right from the start of things, you're tossed into a world of perpetual fast forward, where the only thing more helpful than shooting things, is moving really fast, or at times, really slow. Some points of observation:

+ Feels like a shooter with racing game mechanics
+ Flashy style with intense action and bullet time makes for cinematic gameplay
+ Learning curve, rewarding results 
+ Scoring system adds leaderboard competitiveness and replayability
+ Language choices for voices/subtitles/menus - Japanese voice acting wins

- HUD is too busy, limits field of view
- Subtitles for comms during in-game action are huge and distracting
- Gruff English voice acting is abrasive, Sam's voice especially
- You can only evade in four directions from the point you're on, vertically and horizontally

I took a quick look at the button config and jumped right into battle. I struggled a bit, so after
completing it, I went through the tutorial, got a grasp on things and played again, performing
at a much more respectable clip. Once you get a hang of the action and controls, the game
becomes a ballet of augmented reaction, transforming guns, headspins, and cigarettes.

If you were unaware or unsure of Vanquish, give the demo a shot. Fans of stylized action will be
ready for more come October 19th.

Review: Shank

If you've been following Otaku But Gangsta the past few weeks, you know that I've had a hard time shutting up about Shank. The XBLA and PSN downloadable title was tickling my fancy as release day approached, and developers Klei did a nice job of keeping those interested, such as myself, drawn in. They released the game's full soundtrack, slowly unearthed alternate costumes on the game's website, and revealed the methods to unlocking them via Twitter. A few days before release, I felt a bit dirty because of how much I was buying into a game I've never played, and for all I knew, could have been a complete bomb. Am I still a Shank skank after playing the game? 

Click to read more ...