Hopefully this ends up being a bit more insightful than other posts I’ve seen like this… Where all that was said about most games was “The graphics look good!”… yeah, but what about the game itself? Give some detail about why you’re hyped about a game, dammit!
So let’s go! (and yes, I’m being incredibly cheap and lazy, not including any images here, w00!)
Multiplatform
Asura’s Wrath
Not a game I’m really that hyped about yet, because most of the gameplay footage I’ve seen has been QTEs, which is the laziest/lamest gameplay element ever. But it IS a Capcom action game in the DMC mold, so I’m willing to give it a chance. And there’s a demo coming tomorrow, so… yeah, we’ll see. What I’ve seen does have potential, but I hope it doesn’t overuse QTEs like it seemed to in the videos I’ve seen.
Street Fighter X Tekken
This actually looks like a very solid fighting game. There may be a bit too many systems in place here (cross arts, cross rush, switch cancel, cross assault, EX attacks, stat-modifying gems, pandora mode… and I’m probably missing some), but it does look like it’s going to be fun to play, and I’m interested in seeing how the Tekken characters will play in the SF universe. I’ll rent it first, but I think this has some very good potential.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
FFXIII gets mostly unwarranted hate from… just about everyone really. The sequel will hopefully fix some things people weren’t happy about (linearity, lack of towns, Hope, Sazh… 2 of those which are stupid complaints (hint: Hope and Sazh are the valid complaints)) such as not cramming all the side-quests and exploration in one part late in the game (which was actually very fun). Seems to be keeping mostly the same solid fighting system with some modifications which I hope won’t ruin it (see: QTEs), some cool new elements (monster taming!) and it fixes some things (now you can switch leaders in battle, and you only lose when all your human characters die, rather than just the leader). If the modifications are substantial enough (there’s a lot more that I didn’t mention), it could end up being a really good game, rather than a mildly flawed good game 
Ninja Gaiden 3
The latest NG entry, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, sucked ass (basically boiling down to a God of War style button masher rather than a strategic action game like the “original” Ninja Gaiden on Xbox), but I have hope that this one will actually be good again. I do find that they’re putting too much emphasis on the blood and gore when they’re talking about it, but maybe the gameplay won’t suffer from them concentrating too much on something pointless. I’m only hyped enough to rent it due to the previous game in the series being ass, but it should be an interesting rental nonetheless.
Armored Core V
The Armored Core series isn’t one I’m terribly familiar with, but I did enjoy For Answer, and this one seems quite solid from what I’ve heard so far, with tons of robot customization options and a solid new online feature, like where one player seems to play as a “commander” of sorts. Another rental for me, but AC fans will love this for sure. It’s also one I definitely want to give a try.
Devil May Cry HD Collection
Obviously this is gonna kick ass. 2 of the best action games ever (DMC and DMC3) in one package! And their adopted brother, DMC2, is also included.The graphical update seems very minor from what I’ve seen, but maybe it’s gonna be a bit more obvious once I see it for real. I’m pretty hyped for this, and hey, I’ll be able to give DMC2 a fairer chance, maybe it’s not as bad as I remember.
Borderlands 2
FUCK YEAH! I FREAKING LOVE BORDERLANDS. Seriously, it’s so much fun. The blend of FPS and Diablo just works so well. There are a few things I hope the sequel enhances, like making more weapons really strong (in the first, it seemed like, no matter what, revolvers always ended up being better than everything else for me) and maybe a bit more quest variety. New character classes is great (how can one not want to play as a “Gunzerker”?), new weapons is also really cool (specifically the chaingun that shoots rockets… seriously!) and they’re adding weapon customization (which I was disappointed when it wasn’t included in the first) so that’s awesome. Not only that but many elements are being completely revamped, like artifacts (which were a bit bland in the original). The lists of updates I’ve seen make it look like it may feel like a completely different game from the first. I cannot fucking wait!
Anarchy Reigns
A multiplayer (or so it seems) 3D beat ‘em up made by Platinum Games… That’s enough to hype me up. I’m being a bit wary of it since some gameplay vids I watched seemed rather boring (BUUUUT those particular videos were played by gaming journalists, who are frequently not terribly competent gamers… or competent ANYTHING really). I certainly hope for a demo, but it does seem like it’s going to be a fun game (I just hope it doesn’t concentrate too much on the multiplayer aspect… you know, just in case the PSN or XBL end up getting shut down for 1+ month again ).
Bioshock Infinite
I didn’t really like Bioshock. Not that it’s bad at all, I can certainly see why people loved it and I appreciate what it was going for, but it didn’t really strike a chord with me. Bioshock 2 was trash though… Bioshock Infinite, however, looks very good. There seems to be a lot of high-on-action moments, especially using those weird rail things you can travel on, and the use of a partner with supernatural powers to change the world around does have a lot of potential which I really hope will be exploited properly on a gameplay standpoint and not just in cinematics/story moments. I think this is a rental for me though, since FPS games that I’m hyped for have a tendency to be terrible. I hope not, but I’m not taking chances.
DmC: Devil May Cry (lol)
Yeah, I’m convinced this game will be bad, but I still want to play it… probably due to me being a DMC fan. It’s not that hard to figure out that it’s really likely to suck… it’s made by Ninja Theory, who have yet to make anything even close to decent, and it looks really bad in gameplay videos if you compare it to any other DMC game. The action just looks so slow, clunky and sluggish, not helped by the low framerate… it just doesn’t feel like I’m watching DMC gameplay at all (not to mention the “alternate reality” thing where Dante isn’t really Dante at all and the setting is very… not DMC-ish). So I’m pretty sure this will end up sucking, but, for the most part, I’ll be renting it just to confirm that. And, if it does end up being good somehow, I’ll just have another DMC game to buy.
Lollipop Chainsaw
I’m getting tired of zombies. Everyone is. But one thing I’m most definitely NOT tired of is cheerleaders going around killing zombies (or anything reallly) with a huge chainsaw, making them spray rainbow blood. Oh, and it’s being made by Suda51 so… I’m getting it for the crazyness factor really… As if the awesome title wasn’t enough to make me want to get it.
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
Not really sure about that one yet since we haven’t seen much of the secretly-cancelled-and-then-secretly-taken-over-by-Platinum-Games game after Platinum Games took over (remaking the whole gameplay engine)… but the fact that Platinum Games took over at all is very interesting. I can’t wait to see/hear more about this particular project. It looks like it could be really fun, the little gameplay we’ve seen looks really solid.
Skullgirls
A fun little project by a few random gamers (and getting published by Konami). It’s a fighting game that uses anime-style graphics to display a bunch of really strange female characters, all with their own quirks either visually or gameplay-wise (like Ms. Fortune who can take off her head and control it individually from her body). This looks like it could be a really fun game, and there’s a lot of really cool systems in place to make it easy to play and as balanced as possible (for example, if someone is doing an infinite, the game recognizes that and the infinite can get ended with a single button press by the “victim”). And it’s developed by a solid competitive fighting game player, Mike Z (whom I know for having a badass Tager in BlazBlue), so I think the fighting engine will be very solid.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2
Episode 1 was fantastic. It doesn’t have the same great level design and overall polish as Sonic Generations, but it was still a very well-made game. Here they’re fixing the “not actually broken if you play the game normally but people stupidly complained about it anyways” physics from the first episode (seriously, ALL the complaints about the physics in Episode 1 are 100% impossible to find in normal gameplay, you HAVE to be looking for it),and to top it off Tails is gonna be here and Metal Sonic makes a comeback. This seems like it should be great. Yeah, probably gonna be the third good Sonic game this generation (3 great Sonic games in 1 post-Genesis generation? That’s pretty amazing ).
Zone of the Enders HD Collection
Kojima, stop making Metal Gear games already, and work on Zone of the Enders 3! Seriously, what’s the hold-up? ZOE3 has been talked about since before the PS3 came out, there’s no reason for it not to be in the works by now. Anyways… This includes the 2 PS2 ZOE games, redone in HD. I haven’t seen much about these versions, but whatever. The first game, from what I recall, probably didn’t age too well but was really fun at the time and it still has nostalgia value (as much nostalgia value as a PS2 game can have I guess). The sequel, however, made the controls a lot better, added a lot of movement/attack options and gameplay elements and should still be really fun now. This should be well worth picking up… and maybe if enough people buy it Kojima will finally drop Metal Gear get to work on ZOE3!
3DS
Kid Icarus: Uprising
This is the reason I bought the 3DS so early, since I was expecting it to come sooner (due to it being the first game announced for the system). But now it’s actually coming fairly soon. After seeing various gameplay videos, and a 3D trailer on the 3DS, I can’t wait to play this. It looks fun and fast-paced. Sure, it’s a different gameplay style from the original, but I don’t think the original’s gameplay would fare very well in modern days. Both the flying levels and the action hack n’ slash levels seem like they’re gonna be really fun.
Luigi’s Mansion 2
That was the unexpected announcement of E3 2011. Luigi’s Mansion is a very under-appreciated gamecube game, and, with the low amount of people who actually liked the original, it’s quite surprising that a sequel was announced… but it makes me and other fans of the original very happy to see Nintendo revisiting the idea, and they seem to be expanding on the original’s gameplay with more mansions, different types of ghosts to capture, revamped gameplay and a more puzzle-oriented design. Seems like a very high-potential game.
Paper Mario
A new Paper Mario! And, looking at the 3D video on the 3DS, it looks to use 3D insanely well, and the gameplay looks solid. Seems great! Not much more to say here.
PC
Diablo 3
This. Fucking. Game. It’s been in development way too long, and Blizzard has been teasing us with this for quite a while, constantly saying it would come out soon, eventually going for the DNF approved “it’s gonna come out when it’s done”. Finally it seems it will come out this year, and I can’t wait. Diablo 2 has always been a favorite within my group of friends, and it’s tremendously fun. This seems to add better graphics, a bunch of new character classes, as well as a completely different leveling philosophy than the previous game, new items, that auction house thing… The many videos I’ve seen over the years have been quite solid.
Fortune Summoners
A japanese indie game made by the dudes who made Chantelise and Recettear, and localized by the same guys who localized those 2 games (Carpe Fulgur). This game is a fast-paced side-scrolling party-based action RPG, with combo-based combat (using Street fighter-like moves), with multiple playable characters that you can switch between on-the-fly. Should be worth checking out, look for it on Steam… this month! It has a high price point for an indie game at 25$, but the game will take over 20 hours to complete (some have said around 27) and the gameplay is solid so… it should be worth it. You can check the overly cutesy demo here: DEMO! (keep in mind the demo takes over an hour to complete)
Torchlight 2
The main/only competition to Diablo 3! A lot of people who played both games at events actually preferred Torchlight 2, but this is from short bursts of gameplay, so it’s currently impossible to know if either of them will have more or less lasting power. Torchlight 2 does make a good case for itself with the modding tools being made available to everyone and easy to distribute (within the game itself, sort of like custom-made maps in Starcraft). Torchlight was fairly solid, but I found it to be way too easy, so hopefully this one fixes that. It’s one I’m very hyped to play.
Wii
Xenoblade Chronicles
A late surprise last year/month, with NOA announcing the American release of this game after months of saying they wouldn’t. Finally, through a deal with Gamestop/EBgames (I’m only assuming here, but it IS only being sold at Gamestop/EBgames, as well as Nintendo’s own website) the game is being made available and is doing quite well preorder-wise. It seems like a solid RPG with a few unique systems for battle (and otherwise… you can build/rebuild towns, go on quests and more) and a cool setting (the game takes place on a mountain-like titan giant… thing). And hey, if this does well, maybe Nintendo of America will probably be more willing to release Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story.
Rhythm Heaven Fever
Rhythm Heaven was a solid DS title, one that had fairly simple gameplay/controls but it was super fun. This is purely a rental for me tough, as I don’t know if the fun gameplay on the DS will translate well to the Wii’s motion controls, but I’m fairly convinced it’s gonna be worth trying out.
PS3
Twisted Metal
It’s been a while since a new Twisted Metal, and this seems fairly solid. There’s a variety of vehicles to choose from, and some have multiple functions (your driver can go out of a car to snipe people, for example)… and some of them seem to be transformers! Add to that classic Twisted Metal gameplay and cool boss battles… The game looks quite fun, and David Jaffe seems to know what he’s doing (I’ve been visiting his blog from time to time lately, I really like his attitude in regards to games and gaming).
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Sly Cooper… I’m still playing through the second one (very slowly… I need to actually go at it seriously again), but I actually really liked the original and what I’ve played of the second. This seems to follow the basic gameplay formula of the other games, which is fairly classic 3D platformer style with unique stealth missions and fun boss battles… Sony’s ONLY announcement for PS3 last E3 seems like it will be one of the really good exclusives on it this year.
Vita
Gravity Rush (or whatever the fuck it’s called… seriously, the game has, like, 4 working titles)
One of the only Vita games that seems… interesting to me. The controls sound a bit weird from what I’ve heard (though that’s probably just a matter of getting used to the back touch pad… I hope), but it looks really interesting, where you have to alter gravity to travel through the environment. It just looks like there’s so much potential for cool platforming segments and boss fights. One of the only games on the Vita making me think about getting it at launch. But I may need a bit more to decide that.
Ruin
The other Vita release that’s not a port that I want to check out. It’s a Diablo-like game with, from what I understand, player-customized dungeons to fight through which are generated from your base setup or something like that, which is a very nifty idea (that and the game being saved on the “cloud” being able to be played on the PS3). Well, from what I’ve seen it looks great. I have some good expectations for this.
Really not a whole lot coming up for January so here we have… 5 (*Edit* 3) Multiplatform games! That’s… it really. No good/interesting/popular exclusives for anything.
So let’s go at this quickly!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Final Fantasy XIII-2 01/31 (PS3, 360)
I’m one of the 3 people who actually enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII. It had a fine leveling system, good characters (ignoring Hope and Sazh), an okay-ish story and a really good battle system. This one seems very similar, though I hope some elements are ironed out (such as a few minor things in the fighting system), but I have good hopes for this, as long as the QTEs I’ve seen in some videos aren’t as annoying as they could end up being. I’ll be picking this up.
NeverDead 01/31 (PS3, 360)
This looks potentially interesting. It’s a third-person shooter action game where you play as an immortal character. You seem to have guns and melee weapons, and you can lose or remove body parts as you want and you can retrieve them by rolling over them or something like that. Not sure how dying/challenge will work with a character that can’t die even if he removes his head, but the gameplay videos I’ve seen actually don’t seem THAT bad… I’ll rent it.
SoulCalibur V 01/31 (PS3, 360)
I’ve never been really good at Soul Calibur, nor do I enjoy them that much. Not that I think they’re bad of course, I think Soul Calibur is probably the best 3D-style fighter out there… just not my style of fighting game. I’ll definitely give this a try when Dave gets it though . Things I’ve seen about this game do seem quite interesting.
PC RELEASES
Fortune Summoners 01/17
An insanely cutesy action-RPG with crazy combos and on-the-fly character change. It’s a bit steeply priced compared to other games that were localized by Carpe Fulgur, but with a 20+ hours long game that has quite good gameplay (I can tell from the demo, which was well over an hour long just for the prologue), the 25$ price tag isn’t that unwarranted. And how often to japanese indie games get officially localized over here? I think it’s something that may be worth encouraging, especially if the game ends up being really good… DEMO!
So here we have: over 9000 Wii releases, 13 multiplatform releases, 4 3DS releases, 2 PS3 releases and 2 Xbox 360 releases… OH and 1 PC release (almost forgot that, silly me). Don’t forget this only includes games that will probably be good, or popular games. No shovelware here (other than Call of Duty), and no/very few downloadable games (since release dates rarely pop up early for these).
Read on and tell us what you’re getting!
WII RELEASES
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 11/20
Ah yes, a new Zelda, and holy shit does it look glorious. Nothing more to say here, buy it!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Goldeneye 007: Reloaded 11/01 (PS3, 360)
The Goldeneye remake on Wii was complete shit… by which I mean it was Call of Duty with the Goldeneye story with some messed up details and random stupid changes. This is looking to be the same thing… IN HD! Shit in HD is still shit though.
Sonic Generations 11/01 (PS3, 360, 3DS)
Ah Sonic, coming back with what might possibly be the second good Sonic game this generation! (note: Sonic 4 Episode 1 was the first) I’m not entirely sure what to think of this one yet. The demo that was set in the classic style of gameplay was really well done, though that can change if the level design starts sucking later on, and I’m not totally hyped up for the “new” gameplay style, but the demo at least convinced me that it’s at least not AS shitty as the terrible Sonic Colors. I’m picking it up, but I’m still very unsure if that’s a good idea or not. Good thing it’s so cheap on Steam.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North 11/01 (PC, PS3, 360)
Just saw it on some release lists, figured it might interest some people…. I have no idea what this game is like, and I don’t care.
Burgertime World Tour 11/02 on Xbox 360 (Also coming to PSN, PC and WiiWare later in the month, date currently unknown)
I rarely put downloadable games on here, but this one is worth it. How long has it been since a NEW Burgertime game anyways? And this actually looks really good from what I’ve seen. It keeps the classic gameplay philosophy but adds some new gameplay elements and level design gimmicks. Should be worth checking out.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 11/08 (Pc, PS3, 360)
Activision is once again releasing this game. This is the EIGHTH time they’ve release the same game this generation (ninth if you want to count “Call of Duty Classic” which is downloadable)… This is getting completely crazy guys (who am I kidding, it was already crazy at the third re-release)… Bah, who am I kidding, this will sell the inevitable undeserved millions and will make Actvision huge wads… of cash. Maybe soon people will realize they’re buying the same crappy game over and over… *looks at Madden*… Yeah, that’s not happening.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection 11/08 (Ps3, 360)
Strangely enough, this doesn’t contain MGS1… may I ask why? Instead it’s Peace Walker (unless you’re in japan, in which case you’re getting MGS1 (on PSN, so not in HD) but not Peace Walker)… just a bit weird. Either way, this is an interesting pack for people who didn’t get the same collection (minus HD, minus Peace Walker, plus MGS1) on PS2 a few years back.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 11/11 (PC, PS3, 360)
One of the most hyped game this year. I’m personally not too interested (I’ll just rent it), but it doesn’t look terrible by any means. I’m gonna say this is one to watch out for, it’s probably gonna have hundreds of hours of gameplay if you want do to everything/if you don’t get bored of it before doing everything.
Rayman Origins 11/15 (PS3, X360, Wii, 3DS)
Seems to be really cool. Graphically it’s beautiful, but it also looks really fun to play. And a new Rayman game that’s actually about Rayman himself and not those fucking rabbits? CRAZY!
Need for Speed: The Run 11/15 (PC, PS3, X360, Wii, 3DS)
A seemingly standard Need for Speed game… with completely stupid and random “parkour” segments which are controlled by QTEs (at least in the original trailer I saw, the demo didn’t feature any of that)… not interested, the demo was very unimpressive.
Saints Row: The Third 11/15 (PC, PS3, 360)
Why hello there weird GTA clone. I actually haven’t played any of these, and I won’t start here, but at least I can say the devs of SR seem to take the game less seriously than the GTA series of late, so this is full of wacky weirdness, making it at least more imaginative than what GTA.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 11/15 (Ps3, 360)
A bit of a kick in the balls to release a much better version of the game (12 more characters, bunch of new stages, a couple new modes, spectator mode, complete rebalance, etc.) for 40$ only 8 months after the original which cost 60$, BUT at least this is looking really awesome. The new characters (other than Nemesis and Frank West) look really cool (my favorites so far being Firebrand and Mr top tier…. I mean Phoenix Wright), the Heroes and Heralds mode looks interesting and there’s tons of rebalancing done too.
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations 11/15 (PC, PS3, 360)
It’s Assassin’s Creed. And again it’s milking Ezio for all he’s worth, instead of going to a new setting or something. Anyways, you already know if you want this or not. I personally don’t like this series with it’s 100% mindless “platforming” (hold a button and a direction and the game will do everything on its own!) and button-mashy combat with no real strategy/fun… But a lot of other people clearly do (or at least enjoy the plot enough to suffer through the gameplay), so if you do, check it out!
The King of Fighters XIII 11/22 (PC, PS3, 360)
Didn’t really enjoy KoFXII… Not sure what it was about it, I just couldn’t get into it (though KOF as never my fighting game series of choice). Not planning on trying this one.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception 11/01
The Uncharted games, despite having rather uninspired gameplay (standard cover-based TPS with nothing that sets it apart from any other game in the genre), remains interesting due to being actually really good action movies in the vein of Indiana Jones. I’m sure this will continue the tradition of “fairly boring gameplay, good story/cutscenes”. I’m gonna rent it for sure.
Tekken Hybrid 11/22
Not a big Tekken fan myself, but for people who are, this includes the Tekken 3D movie, Tekken Tag Tournament HD and Tekken Tag 2 Prologue, so it should be a nice package for fans.
3DS RELEASES
Cave Story 3D 11/08
The original Cave Story is a very fun Metroid-style platformer. This looks… pretty much identical from what I’ve seen, but with 3D graphics (that do look quite good from what I’ve seen). Probably not a bad buy, but I question if 40$ is a good price point for it since you can still get the original for free… maybe if there’s enough new content…
Super Mario 3D Land 11/13
This will kick ass. Nothing more to say.
Shinobi 11/15
Not really sure about this one yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll at least rent it. It’s been a while since the last side-scrolling Shinobi game (I’d say Saturn off the top of my head (Shinobi Legions) but I might be wrong), so this is interesting on that premise alone, and the gameplay looks okay from what I’ve seen.
Nano Assault 11/22
The third in the not-acclaimed-but-still-really-good Nanostray series by Shi’nen. This one takes on various gameplay styles. The ones I’ve seen were twin-stick shooter and a star fox-style “space” shooter, but I’m guessing there’s going to be regular side-scrolling shooter levels as well. Looks very solid.
PC RELEASES
Serious Sam 3: BFE 11/22
Another FPS this year that I’m interested in, partly because it takes on an “oldschool” style of gameplay in FPS, with some exploration for secrets but, most of all, badass fast-moving action and awesome weapons. Looks like this could be really good… hopefully.
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Otomedius Excellent 11/01
It was delayed again? Seriously? Come on guys, just release the damn thing… there’s already DLC available for it, so why is the game not out yet? *insert blurb about how it looks to be a kickass gradius game*
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary 11/15
It’s Halo.
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed anything. Not sure why, since there’s a few games I wanted to talk about… maybe someday… but whatever, here’s one that no one is talking about now, and that no one (except maybe CGR) will ever talk about for various reasons:
1. It’s a movie tie-in for a children’s (and for children at heart) film.
2. It’s a 10$ downloadable game that’s a movie-tie in, thus it’s low budget and most people will think it sucks due to that.
3. It’s a boxing game.
Real Steel is based on a movie that I haven’t seen and probably won’t see until/if I rent the DVD/Blu-Ray. When I saw this on the PSN store, I almost ignored it but saw that there was a demo so I gave it a chance anyways. The moment I saw the “Yuke’s” logo in the start-up, I was expecting a lame game, since they’re the guys who make the crappy UFC Undisputed games. And then, after playing, I bought the game…
So read on and see what the game is like!
Developer: Yuke’s
Publisher: Yuke’s
Date of Release: October 18th 2011
Platforms: XBLA, PSN (PSN version reviewed)
Genre: Boxing
Rated E10+ for Everyone over 10
Gameplay
The gameplay is very reminiscent of the Fight Night series (and surprisingly/thankfully not much of the UFC series). The controls are very simplified though. Compared to Fight Night’s huge variety of punches you can do with modifier buttons and the right analog stick+various button pressses, here you have on jab button for each fist and one stronger punch button for each fist, with changes to the punches depending on the direction you press to do it. You can assign up to 4 special punches as well, each to one of the face buttons, which you can do by holding R1 and pressing that button). Some tech moves are unblockable (meaning you HAVE to avoid it) and others are destruction moves (cause major damage to body parts or outright destroys them), while others are just stronger punches. On the defensiveside you can sway with L2+the analog stick, which is useless as far as I’ve tried, you have dashes in any direction with L1 which are by far the best way to avoid punches, and you can block with R2 (pressing it at the exact moment an attack would hit you does a parry, which leaves the opponent open to attacks for a moment). It’s actually very easy to play, the controls aren’t too complicated to adapt to, especially if you’ve played Fight Night before hand.
As far as actual gameplay goes, well, it’s boxing, but with robots. It uses robot designs from the movie, but your own robot is completely new and customizable (more on that later). I don’t think I have to explain what boxing is… So to get to the specifics, each punch removes some of the robot’s “full health” and a larger chunk of health that will regenerate over-time (similar to red health in the MvC games). The lower the health, the more likely the robot is to get knocked down (it’s automatic knock down if you get it down to 0). If a robot is not getting hit, he’ll regenerate some of this “red health”. In addition to health, you have a “power charge” meter. Punching and dashing will take away some of that power and, if your meter runs dry, your robot will stagger for a few moments, leaving him open to attack, and will remain in a weakened state (less defense, slower and weaker punches) until the power meter refills (punching while in that state slows down the regeneration and you cannot dash either). This gives good strategy snice you can’t just mash the opponents to death.
Another way to beat your opponents is to do something you won’t usually see in boxing games: by ripping their head off. You see, each body part other than the legs here are prone to damage separate from the normal health bar. You see your robot’s damage in the UI. When a body part gets lower in damage it changes color. Orange means that a destruction attack, or even just a storng punch, can knock that part off. You can lose an arm or 2 (I think the match is an instant loss if you lose both arms, though that actually has yet to happen to me), or a solid blow to the head can knock it off as well (resulting in a KO). I’m actually not sure if you can just rip out the body section of a robot, though it does have its own HP as well. You have to be careful with those arms though since, if you lose one of them, tech attacks are completely disabled.
The weak link here is getting knocked down. To get up, you have to spin the left analog stick to fill up a meter then press a face button (each button has its own meter) to fill up that button’s meter (said meter goes down over-time, by the way). Fill up each button’s meter before the 10-count and you’ll get up… I REALLY hate this system. It’s nearly impossible to get back up if you get knocked down twice in a round (though the opponent’s robot can sometimes get up easily if you knock them down 3-4 times in the same round (there’s no 3 knock-down rule in effect)). Maybe I’m doing this wrong, but I really hate this system.
Oh, and a minor annoyance: there’s invisible walls so you can’t get too far away from your opponent. You can’t go to, say, one end of the ring while the opponent is at the other.
Customization/Grinding
A VERY LARGE part of this game is grinding. You get money when fighting other robots (you get money either way, but obviously more when you win, and sometimes extra parts or repair kits when you win). After each battle, it’s highly suggested to repair your robot (costs about 2000$ per battle from what I’ve experienced, less if you really kick the crap out of your opponent, and you can repair some parts for free with repair kits(1 part per repair kit)), and, with the left-over money, you can save up to buy parts for your robot. Different heads, bodies, left and right arms, left and right fists, legs, core parts (generator, motherboard, fluids for the hydraulic systems) can all be equipped on your robot. Each part affects different stats (core HP, sub HP(HP for that particular part), defense, durability, mobility, punch speed, attack power, movement speed, power charge, power recovery, health recovery, weight, energy use, and a couple more). The stronger you make your robot, the better chance you stand in higher ranks/online.
The grinding part comes partly from having to make money to buy better parts, but also from the fact that enemies get much stronger than you really fast. To get better parts for your robot, you obviously need money, which goes up fairly slowly and goes down really fast when you buy stuff. So a lot of the time you’ll just be re-fighting old opponents for cash and experience. Ah yes, the experience. The “problem” here is that you get a certain TYPE of experience depending on your actions. Dodging properly (and sometimes pulling off fast combos) gets you speed experience. Hitting the opponent effectively gives you offense experience. Guarding/parrying gives you guard experience. Knocking an opponent down gives you performance experience. Destroying body parts or at least damaging them heavily gives you destruction experience. Getting enough experience of each type will give you levels of that particular type. Here’s the weird part though: that experience does NOT make you or your robot stronger directly. Instead, getting more experience gives you access to locked equipment in the shop (so, even if you can see equipment in the shop, you can’t buy it until you’re leveled up enough). Each part has its own level requirement, so you have to work hard on getting those points up (For example, one may ask you to have 12 offense, 14 speed, 13 guard, 10 destructive and 11 performance, and if you’re low on one, you can’t buy the part). From what I’ve seen, Guard and speed were the tougher ones to build up at first, butI figured that fighting the scrapbot will make it easier to grind those up (just block/evade for whole rounds). Offense is actually the one that builds up slower. Also, most equipment is completely locked until you reach certain points in the “campaign”.
So you’ll be spending a LOT of time getting those levels up and gaining enough money to buy parts for your robot. It’s really quite a big grind. Some people might hold it against the game. I personally don’t, but I would understand if you do.
“The Catch”
This is actually a fairly high-quality release for a 10$ game, so what’s the catch? Well, the store has 2 options: a standard store where you use cash won from battles, and another “DLC” store where you can buy parts with actual money (and, from what I’ve seen, without level requirements). Each part is 2$, and you can buy a whole robot for 10$ (basically getting all the parts in it for half price). You can also buy money and repair kits. THIS is the catch in the game. You CAN totally ignore it, that’s what I’m doing, but if you’re willing to waste your money, you can get some of the best parts, or extra in-game money, without even playing the game. That certainly makes the game much easier though, and much less grindy (a robot with a “power level” of 6000 will walk over anything for a while in the “campaign” without even having a chance to lose). I think this option is a bit stupid, but frankly it’s not affecting my enjoyment of the game, so I won’t hold it against the game.
Presentation
There’s one aspect of the presentation that really annoys me: there’s no commentator! Frankly, the game sounds a bit bland overall, and adding an announcer or 2 would definitely liven it up. Otherwise, it’s what you’d expect: the robot models look fine but nowhere near as good as the same robots in the movie obviously (at least from what I’ve seen in trailers). The sound is metal pounding on metal, nothing really out of the ordinary here. Despite this being a 10$ game, there aren’t any glaring graphical problems or obvious “we had to cut back on this” parts, it’s just a few months of development more shy of full disc release quality.
Overall
Real Steel was a huge surprise for me. I mean, how often do you find a very good and very cheap downloadable game BASED ON A KIDS MOVIE? I have no clue how this happened, but there it is, probably the only good movie licensed game on an HD console this generation (I’m not counting Ghostbusters since that’s more like a sequel to the movies than a movie-based game), and it’s a cheap 10$ DLC game. Congrats, Yuke’s, con-fucking-grats.
The game has fun boxing gameplay with simple controls (it may have less depth than Fight Night Round 4, but that doesn’t make it less fun), lots of customizing, it looks quite good considering it’s a 10$ game that actually takes very little space on the hard drive. The grinding may be a drawback to some people, but I frankly didn’t mind. The presentation lacks polish (no commentator, what?), but that’s understandable for a low-budget game. My only really big problem with the game is how you get up from getting knocked down (I counter that problem by not getting knocked down as much as I can, even sacrificing an arm if need be).
If this sounds like something you might enjoy, definitely check it out.
]]>Let’s see… for October 2011 we have: 9 multiplatform releases, 3 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 2 Xbox 360 releases, 2 PC releases and the first truly great Wii release of the year (note: yes Mario Sports Mix was good, but definitely not GREAT)! Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing a couple hidden gems (and downloadable games, these rarely get release dates this fast). I try to not include shovelware in these lists.
So read on and see what you’ll be buying!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Dark Souls 10/04 (PS3, 360)
A spiritual successor to the highly popular Demon’s Souls on PS3. This time it’s a multiplatform title, but it seems to retain the gameplay style and difficulty-type of the original. I’ll only be renting this, but it’s looking mighty fine from what I’ve seen.
Spider-Man: Edge of Time 10/04 (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Seems very similar to Shattered Dimensions. Not too sure about that one. Shattered Dimensions was… okay… but it was definitely not worth a purchase. I’m expecting the same here.
Rage 10/04 (PC, PS3, 360)
I always look reluctantly at FPS. This may have been made by id, and some things I’ve seen looked interesting (especially since it reminded me of Borderlands a little bit), but… I don’t know, FPS tend to disappoint me most of the time, so I’ll not get any hype for this. I’ll probably check it out eventually though.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record 10/11 (PS3, 360, PC)
The first Dead Rising was boring, the second one was pretty much the same but with a few added gameplay elements so it wasn’t AS bad… This seems like it’s just gonna be DR2 with Frank West… meh (and no, I don’t care that he’s covered wars, you know).
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure 10/16 (PS3, 360, PC, Wii, 3DS)
I don’t know about this one… You can collect figurines, and get them scanned into the game somehow. It seems to be a fairly standard 3D platformer, but here you have access to 32 characters…. as long as you have the figurines. I’ll be honest, I’m not expecting this to really catch on.
Batman: Arkham City 10/18 (PC, PS3, 360)
Arkham Asylum was a very solid puzzle-y brawler/stealth game, and ended up being one of the very few modern licensed games to not be terrible. I haven’t actually seen anything in regards to its sequel, but I am still excited to check it out (had it pre-ordered for months now). I only hope a few things are modified here, to make it even better than the first. I’m pretty hyped.
Battlefield 3 10/25 (PC, PS3, 360)
This has been played up to be the competition for MW3, with both the advertisers, gamers and overall press talking about how much greater it’s gonna be… but from what I’ve seen it’s just another bland military FPS with no defining elements, it might as well be called “MW3 with more vehicles and better graphics”. The non-vehicle moments are 100% identical to any CoD game… Even the box art has the exact same lack of originality/fun as the CoD series’ box art… Get Serious Sam 3 instead!
The King of Fighters XIII 10/25 (PS3, 360)
King of Fighters XII kinda disappointed me… I can’t say why though, it just didn’t get me like older KoF games. I’m not even sure I’ll try this one. We’ll see.
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi 10/25 (PS3, 360)
DBZ fighting games always kinda failed to really impress me. This seem very much the same as previous Tenkaichi games.
3DS RELEASES
Tetris: Axis 10/07
Looks like Tetris! Not really much to say here…
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns 10/11 (also coming to DS, but I decided to ignore that)
To be completely honest, I haven’t played a Harvest Moon game since the SNES… I have no idea if the series has done any changing since then. Maybe I’ll have to check a newer one soon…
Pokemon Rumble Blast 10/24
I played the demo for the original Pokemon Rumble on Wiiware, and it SUCKED. You’d think a Pokemon action game like this would have the potential to be great but… Yeah, my expectations for this are super-low.
PC RELEASES
Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter 10/04
I have no idea what that’s gonna be like. So I won’t comment on it! *thumbs up*
Might & Magic: Heroes VI 10/11
The Heroes of Might and Magic series is a very cool Strategy-RPG series. By building up your city and conquering other cities, you can build an army and take over the rest of the land. As of now my favorite in the series remains the third, but I’ll probably end up checking this one out eventually. Should be good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Twisted Metal 10/04
(Haven’t found the official box art, will update when I do)
The videos I’ve seen look very… Twisted Metal-like (duh). You have access to more vehicles, and you even have sniper rifles to take out enemies from far away… I’m not really convinced about this game though, I might rent it.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One 10/18
Ratchet & Clank with 4 players! It looks like a simplified and super-linear version of Ratchet & Clank. It DOES look fun though, but it’s probably not terribly interesting to play alone.
The House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut 10/25
House of the Dead Overkill was an amazingly fun on-rails shooter on the Wii. I don’t know what kind of extra content this is getting, but it’s probably gonna be awesome. Sadly, I don’t have a Move to check it out.
NINTENDO WII RELEASES
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland 10/24
The first really good Wii release of the year! This was a very long time coming. This is the first real Kirby game on a console since Crystal Shards on the N64. And it looks AMAZING. No offense to Epic Yarn, I quite liked it (despite the slow gameplay and total lack of challenge), but THIS is what a Kirby game should be like. And a 4-player option kicks ass here too, it’s probably gonna be a fun game to play while hanging out with friends (since all the playable characters look to play differently).
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Forza Motorsport 4 10/11
Forza 3 was solid. I’m expecting the same amount of solid-ness from this one. Not sure what Kinect really does in regards to the gameplay here though, seems kinda pointless to me.
Dance Central 2 10/25
It’s Dance Central… If you liked the first one, this seems to be identical beyond having new dance moves and new songs.
We have 1 3DS releases, 3 multiplatform releases, 1 Xbox 360 release.
Read on and see if you’re picking anything up!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon 7/05 (PS3, 360)
The previous Earth Defense Force on the 360 was definitely a cheap game. It was cheaply made, had various issues and it didn’t have much depth… but damn was it fun to play. I’m hoping this one will be similar. And it’s budget-priced as far as I can see too.
Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PC, PS3, 360) 7/19 (PS3, 360, PC)
Rule of thumb: if a game title starts with “Call of”, it sucks. The last Call of Juarez game was pretty bad, so I have no expectations for this one.
Catherine 7/26 (PS3, 360)
I’m not sure about this… the characters and story seem protentially interesting, but the gameplay just seeming a big repetitive block-moving puzzle makes me wonder if I’d even get much gameplay out of this.
3DS RELEASES
Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions 7/26
This actually seems like a nice release for the 3DS. You get 3 Pac-Man games and 3 Galaga games. You have the classic versions of both, the recently-remixed versions of both (Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga Legions (though not DX for either of these)) and a completely new game for each (pac-man gets platformer that you have to tilt the system to move him around, while Galaga gets a first-person space shooter).
Well this coming out came to me as a surprise, and I enjoyed the little bit of the demo that I played. And the price seemed right, since it’s half the price it cost 2 years back when it came out in Japan.
This is my first forray in the Wizardry series, though I did try a few of the older ones after starting to play this. So I’ll go right away and say this: if you’re not amongst the hardcore of the hardcore, you may have trouble with this game/series. It’s fun, but it’s not exactly easy to play if you’re not accustomed to the retro.
So yeah, here’s my review!
Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Xseed Games
Date of Release: June 1st 2011 (gamefaqs says May 16th, but that’s false due to the PSN being down at that time)
Platforms: Playstation 3
Genre: RPG
Rated T for Teen
What is good about this game
Gameplay
The basic gameplay is great. It’s reminiscent of… every other Wizardry game before it, as far as I can tell. It’s a classic-style first-person dungeon crawler RPG.
You have a town which you can… visit through menus (no pointless exploring, yay!). The inn lets you recover your HP and MP (as well as having a record of what you did(in addition to a bestiary and item catalogue) and a warehouse). The item shop can appraise items (though… just get a Bishop to do this) and you can buy/sell stuff there too. The guild will be the first place you go to so that you can build your party (otherwise don’t expect to survive) and get quests. The temple is a place where you can convert Gold into Experience Points, and revive dead party members (but, be careful, 2 missed resurrection attempts means perma-death for your character). Finally there’s the Palace which, as far as I can tell, is useless beyond being a place with a few NPCs to talk to.
Making characters is fairly simple: Go to the guild, register a new adventurer and make them. If you’re slightly OCD, you’ll be trying to get a high amount of bonus points, which you can put in any stat. You see, one of the quirks here is that you have to have a certain set of stats to make the different classes. For example, you need a certain amount of strength to make Fighters and Samurai (with a mix of other stats in addition to strength for a Lord), Intelligence to make a Mage, Piety to make a Priest/Bishop, Agility and Luck for Thieves and… everything for a Ninja. You can get up to 40 bonus points for any character, and 47 bonus points for your main character. In addition to lass, you have to choose a race, each of which get different starting stats, which makes them more suited for different classes. So you can build your team how you want it, and set up a front and back row to place your characters (3 per row). Each race also has a stat cap for every stat. While stats and classes are important, the most important element to a character’s power is mostly the equipment, you can have terrible stats, but have a weapon that hits for 500 damage, which compensates.
The exploration is very fun. You move around in the dungeons in a grid, in first-person view. You can find chests, get hit by traps, find quest items, get into disorienting dark rooms, anti-magic zones that will make battles a bit tougher, as well as random teleports and panels that spin you around. It’s simple classic fare, with repetitive-looking levels, but the dungeon layouts that are different on every floor make it interesting.
Battle is fairly simple. It’s all random . You’re given a bunch of enemies in front of you, each seperated by monster type and placed in their own rows in battle. When you choose targets for your characters’ attacks and spells, rather than targetting specific enemies, you just target their row. Weapons have a range, so you may not be able to attack anything other than the front row, but as you advance you will find weapons that can hit a row or 2 back.
Difficulty
Combat can be really tough though, since, if you’re not powered up enough, going to the next floor of a dungeon will find you being completely out-classed by the new monsters. That’s basically where the difficulty comes in: if you don’t grind enough, you won’t get enough levels and equipment to survive the next floor. What I like is that the grinding isn’t excessive. It’s possible to grind endlessly, but it’s not terribly needed if you go at it properly. At first you may grind a bit more to get a shiny new katana, but that becomes less prominent as you advance. I found that fully exploring a floor before going to the next generally got me the equipment I needed to continue. I do have trouble from time-to-time (where I’m at my Bishop has to revive at least one member after every few battles), but it still feels to me like very balanced difficulty.
What is bad about the game
Quest order
This is one minor problem for me. You get a few sets of quests as you start the game, and, as you finish those, you unlock more. In one of the early sets of quests, you have to find an item in the sixth floor of Shiin Dungeon. In the following set, you have things to find in the third and fourth floors… But this becomes really annoying, because, buy the time you get to the sitxh floor and are strong enough to fight in it, you’ll have fully explored the third and fourth floor already… so revisiting them completely just to find what you need for your quests is… really annoying.
Oh, and speaking of quests, the ones that require drops from monsters is… excruciating. The drop rates are so low for some of those that you’ll basically be grinding just to get those, or trying to find areas where the required monsters spawn more often.
Leveling
The leveling can be rather annoying. Since there’s a level cap, the game designers felt like they should make it possible for you to actually lose stat points when you level. As far as I can tell, this is the first Wizardry game where this happens (one of the previous ones apparently had such a feature, but it was so rare most players would never encounter it), and it happens almost every few levels. It can make getting certain classes harder than it should be. I would have a ninja by now if it wasn’t for my character losing an INT point 2 levels back.
Overall
This is just a nice and fun retro-style dungeon crawling RPG. There’s nothing really bad about it. The difficulty is balanced, making characters is simple, there’s not too much grinding and it’s nice simple fun. There are low points, as I mentioned, but they don’t REALLY break the experience. It’s fun, it’s classic and it’s well worth playing, especially if you’ve been itching for a classic-style computer RPG (and you don’t have a DS to play Dark Spire/Etrian Odyssey).
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Just because I haven’t played enough of it yet, and probably won’t for quite a while, here’s a quick impressions post for Motorstorm Apocalypse.
Just for a quick background. I played the demo for the first Motorstorm; the controls got me out of it fast, those vehicles could barely turn properly. Later I played the PSP Motorstorm. Hated it. Didn’t play the second Motorstorm on the PS3 since I didn’t like the other 2.
So when I saw this one… the idea of constantly changing environments instantly reminded me of Split/Second, which turned out being a pretty bad game with horrible rubberband AI and not much else. I decided to try it out though, hoping that it would actually end up being Split/Second done right.
Was it? Read on and see!
What I liked
Track design
Holy SHIT! The track design here is nearly mind-blowing. Racing in ruined cities, rooftops (where some of the buildings are falling), and various other post-apocalyptic settings, they’ve done some really interesting courses here. The great thing about them is that they’re constantly changing as you race. There’s constant earthquakes and explosions, causing parts of the road to change, or paths getting cut-off, or new paths appearing. It’s really quite interesting.
The coolest track, though one of the harder ones to race in as far as I’ve seen, is an awesome track where you’re racing inside of a hurricane. Not only is there insanely strong wind making it harder to handle your car, but there’s constant lightning strikes destroying stuff around you, there’s a tornado causing damage, and there’s still earthquakes and explosions going on. The track is, like, the epitome of extreme. It’s like all the best car action scenes in movies mixed into one big pack of awesome.
This definitely handles the ever-changing track philosophy given by Split/Second… it just removes the randomness from it that was caused by making the changes user-inputted and instead goes for a static timeline in the race. It still does for great races, even if the amazement of seeing the course change the first few times through each of them is kinda lost pretty fast. Nonetheless, these are amongst the best tracks I’ve ever seen in a racing game.
Graphics
The great graphcis and visual effects really help in making the courses more exciting… not much more to say here, other than “I wish I had a 3D TV”.
Boost management
Here, you have a boost system. You have a boost meter. As you hold the boost button, it fills up. Fill it up too much, your car explodes. To reduce the heat level, you have to either let it rest, pass through water puddles, or let go of the gas and boost while you’re in the air. This system is actually really good. It makes winning more about how well you can manipulate through the tracks and how well you can manage your car’s heat, than just dumb luck and trying to prevent a rubberband AI from catching up.
AI
Speaking of rubberband AI, if there is one here, it’s really subtle. Everytime I won or lost a race, it always felt that it was because I raced my best, or messed up too much. The races are super-intense and you’ll probably end up crashing a lot… but so will your opponents. So the races are always really close fights.
What I didn’t like
Controls
This is the fourth game in the series and it still controls terribly? What’s up with these devs? It seems like all the vehicles control badly, other than the ATV and the Superbike (though not all races are good for the superbike). Everything else seems to have major trouble cornering, no matter how much you brake before taking the turn, or how well you think you’re using the handbrake. Pretty much all the cars corner like tanks, which is quite annoying
The story sucks
But you can skip the cinematics so… no big problem here. The story really is bad though, I hated every cinematic I decided to sit through.
Collision detection
Just a minor complaint, but the collision detection here is kinda bad. I frequently crashed into nothing. Really. Sometimes you’ll hit obstacles full speed and not crash at all. Most of the time it works fine, but sometimes it’s just glitchly (it seems).
Then there’s the reset system. Sometimes you’ll crash into something and not get the crash animation, making you waste even more time waiting for the reset button to work. Sometimes you’ll go way out of your way by error and be way off-track for quite some time and the reset button will never appear. I’m not saying you should be able to reset anytime, just that, when you’re having problems, it actually does let you reset instead of wasting your time.
Overall
Motorstorm Apocalypse doesn’t come out as a highly suggested title. The controls still make the experience a lot less enjoyable than it should be, especially considering the amazing track design. As it stands, Motorstorm Apocalypse outdoes its predecessors by FAR due to having some of the best tracks around, with its only major misstep being terrible controls. More time put on making the cars less awkward to controls would have made this the premier racing game on the system.
Unless it gets patched or something, my suggestion is to rent it first, see if the controls bother you. They bothered me, but maybe you’ll be fine with them.
]]>So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.
Read on!
3DS LAUNCH!
March 27th 2011
Ah yes, the 3DS by Nintendo is finally coming out. Dave, who played it at E3 last year, was quite impressed with it, and, well, let’s face it, it’s a Nintendo handheld so it’s 100% sure to be a great handheld system (call me a fanboy if you want, you still know it’s the thruth… and no, the Virtual Boy is NOT a handheld system), and it’s 100% sure it’s gonna sell well (heck, it’s already sold out in Japan, selling almost half a million in a day). It features an analog stick, multi-touch touch screen, motion-control, multiple cameras that can take 3D pictures and of course a 3D screen that doesn’t require glasses (which is awesome) that can have the 3D effect de-activated if you don’t want it/can’t see it. The launch price is 250$, which is fair. The launch is a bit on the weak side, and there’s no dates for the currently announced “big” games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Paper Mario, KID FUCKING ICARUS), but what does it matter, the system’s lineup will end up being great sooner or later.
Launch Titles
Pilotwings Resort
Steel Diver (I haven’t seen much about this, and what I did see didn’t look terribly interesting, but people are excited about it)
Nintendogs + Cats
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (will be worth getting if you don’t have the console versions… looks very impressive graphically)
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (this actually looks quite interesting)
The Sims 3
Madden NFL Football
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Ridge Racer 3D
Super Monkey Ball 3D
Bust-A-Move Universe (Probably won’t be worth getting if you have another version of bust-a-move)
Asphalt 3D
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
Rayman 3D (didn’t this come out on the normal DS? yeah, it did, the only apparent difference is the 3D effect)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (It’s a turn-based strategy game)
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Fight Night Champion 03/01 (PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the demo for this. It sucked. I loved FNR3, and then realized that it sucked in comparison to FNR4, which was REALLY well done and ended up being very underrated. This, on the other hand, seems to use a similar graphical style to FNR4, but the camera angles are dynamic and completely changed, making the gameplay harder to get a hang of since you can barely see what you’re doing, and the actual fighting is very downgraded from FNR4, with half the punches you could do being removed, and less control over where you can hit, and NO control over where you block. I might rent it, but the demo left me REALLY unimpressed.
Beyond Good & Evil HD 03/02 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Oh, I didn’t know this was coming out. I actually don’t know much about this game, I never ended up playing it last generation despite having many chances of buying it, and people constantly telling me how good it was. So yeah, this could be a chance for me to finally check it out.
Dragon Age II 03/08 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the first Dragon Age. It was incredibly boring to me, and I lost interest after about an hour. The fighting system was dull and I had no interest in the story and characters. But I know that other people loved it. Though, from what I’ve heard, this is a downgrade from the first game.
Homefront 03/15 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Crappy brown military first-person shooter, nothing to see here…. OH, but, if you pre-order it with OnLive, you can get the Onlive Console, as well as that piece of shit Metro 2033, both for free. That’s pretty interesting at least.
Crysis 2 03/22 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The first Crysis was basically a standard brown military FPS, but the Nanosuit added some variety and fun features. This seems like more of the same. It has an advanced graphics engine, but from what I’ve seen it’s no different from the first game gameplay-wise.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 03/22 (Everything)
It’s a LEGO game. Yet again based on the Star Wars series. It’s probably gonna be a fun and popular game, the LEGO games are rarely really bad.
Dynasty Warriors 7 03/22 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Dynasty Warriors! There’s hundreds of enemies, and you have to button-mash to kill them all! Those games are generally fun to play, despite the simple fighting system. Killing tons of enemies is very satisfying. So yeah, this should be good enough.
Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot (03/29 for the PS3, 03/30 for the 360)
Oh, that’s really interesting. Rush ‘N Attack, also named Green Beret in its original arcade release, was a very simple but very fun side-scrolling… hum… platformer? Brawler? Either way, your main attack was a fast stab with a knife that killed almost anything in one hit, and each enemy type had a different method to fight them, like different timing for jumping before stabbing and such. You also got different weapons which have limited ammo. It got pretty tough. This looks a bit different from the original, and graphically it has similarities to Shadow Complex. This is hopefully going to be awesome.
Shift 2 Unleashed: Need for Speed 03/29 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
The first NFS Shift was surprisingly good. It wasn’t as deep and well-made as the big simulation racers such as Forza and Gran Turismo, but it was still very fun. So this should be good.
Space Channel 5 Part 2 03/31 (PS3, Xbox 360 (maybe))
I put this in the multiplatform section because, while the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have an official release date, it should be coming either at that date, or close. Anyways… the original SC5 was a fun rhythm game with a very fun and simple gameplay and a cool presentation, so this should be just as good. Never played it though, so I’m interested.
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Pokemon Black and White versions 03/06
Pokemon is always awesome. Great simple RPGs all the way through. This is probably gonna be great. Not much more to say here really. This one features a completely new set of pokemon, so that means the caves won’t just be populated by Geodudes an Zubats. EVOLUTION!
Atari’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 03/08
A big compilation of badass Atari 2600 games. There’s a lot of really awesome games in there like Yars’ Revenge, Millipede, Star Raiders, Demons to Diamonds, Warlords and various others.
Okamiden 03/15
A “cute” version of Okami. It seems to have a lot of similarities to its PS2/Wii grand-daddy, with some top-down puzzle segments. It should be really good, I have high hopes for this.
Monster Tale 03/22
Oh look, a game made by a completely new developer that no one has ever heard about, gotta have at least one of those every month… Well I think this looks really interesting. You have a sidescrolling action-platformer on the top screen, and the bottom screen seems to be where (I think) you train a monster using the touch screen to make it fight its own battles and such, and, from what I’ve seen, you can summon the monster to the top screen so he can provide support. I think it looks good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel 03/15
I was never a big fan of the Ar tonelico series. They somehow never had the same fun feel as the Atelier/Mana Khemia games which these are pretty similar to. Apparently this is going to be the final game in the series, so fans of the series should check it out. I’m not too interested though.
Yazuka 4 03/15
I have yet to play a Yakuza game, but Dave was a big fan. This should be pretty fun.
PlayStation Move Heroes 03/22
Sly, Ratchet, Jax, Daxter, Clank and a few more team up in this multiplayer 3D platforming action game. Obviously it makes use of the Move controller and it’s required to play this. Could be interesting. Maybe Dave will check it out?
PC RELEASES
Shogun 2: Total War 03/15
The original Shogun: Total War was a fun Strategy game. I was terrible at it when I was younger since it’s sort of complicated, but I still enjoyed it. This should be pretty cool as well.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle 03/08
Phantom Brave was an amazingly fun Strategy RPG on the Playstation 2 by Nippon Ichi. The story and characters were fun, the fighting mechanics were actually pretty unique to the SRPG genre, and it has the usual grinding present in Nippon Ichi games.
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy 03/22
The first Dissidia was a really fun and unique fighting game with fast-paced fighting and a nice cast of fun characters to use, each with their own play style. From what I’ve seen the gameplay here is nearly identical to the original, but it adds more characters and probably balances some things out, and it adds a few new elements like assists. I’ll get it eventually.
The 3rd Birthday 03/29
Oh, a new Parasite Eve! Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, but this looks not too bad. It seems more action-oriented than the other PE games, but it should be interesting to play.
*EDIT* Dave tells me that fans of the series who played the japanese version have been highly disappointed in the game. So you might want to not keep your hopes up too high.
Splatterhouse is a classic horror-themed series. It’s highly influential and the first 3 games in the series were great fun. Seeing previews and reviews of this game, I wasn’t expecting it to be really good, but I still wanted to check it out because I appreciate the originals, so I rented it, and played through it, as well as a bit of the extra content.
Read on and see if I enjoyed my time with the game!
Developer: BottleRocket up to early 2009, Namco Bandai Games America afterwards
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Date of Release: November 23rd 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (PS3 version reviewed)
Genre: Beat ‘em Up
Rated M for Mature (riding very close to an AO rating I’d think)
What is good about this game
It’s a classics collection
Easily the best part of the game. Every 2 chapters until chapter 6, you unlock one of the classics. The first Splatterhouse is the uncensored arcade version, and the other 2 were only on Genesis so we get unchanged Genesis versions of those. These version play really well. The games all control very well, I haven’t seen any graphical problems with the emulation, nor have I found any sound problems with the emulation. Other than the actual original versions, this is probably the best way to play the original Splatterhouse games. Don’t even bring up the piece of shit iPhone port of the first Splatterhouse, that thing is barely controllable.
Each of the 3 games are really good. The third game in the series is a departure from the style of the first 2, but it is a good Beat ‘em Up and a big part of the inspiration for this game, at least gameplay-wise. The only thing that kinda sucks here is the lack of Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, the cartoonish Famicom spin-0ff, which would have been a great addition.
It’s actually not a bad beat’em up
Rather than being a God of War/Devil May Cry-style of action game, it has more in common with classic Beat ‘em Ups. If I’d compare Splatterhouse to anything recent, I’d say it’s quite similar to Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, just much better. And, as a Beat ‘em Up, it’s not bad at all. You have 2 types of attacks: Direct attacks, and Directional attacks. Directional attacks can be charged (this slows down time and enables you to aim at whichever enemy you want), direct attacks cannot. You can dash, and during said dash you can launch a variety of attacks. You can block and roll to evade. And you have “mask” attacks by pressing L1 and any of the attack buttons, which takes one segment of your Necro Meter but they’re more devestating. The only way you can heal yourself is by using the Splatter Siphon attack, which actually drains health from monsters (moreso if you mash the circle button). Speaking of the Necro Meter, if you have at least 3 segments full, you can go in Berserker mode, which fully heals you and makes you a whole lot stronger. Also, killing enemies give you blood, which can be used to buy upgrades for Rick, making certain attacks stronger,  and enabling for new moves, overall adding a bit of variety to the fighting.
The fighting itself is fairly satisfying, if not a bit shallow due to the game being a Beat ‘em Up rather than an all-out action game ala DMC. The action is fast enough, attacks can be blocked and avoided, but, if you get hit, it’s hard to get out of the way of follow-up attacks, so you have to be really careful. If you’re surrounded by enemies and end up getting hit, you’re pretty much as good as dead. You can also pick up weapons, ranging from lead pipes, 2x4s (of course), baseball bats, your own arm if it ends up getting cut off (it regenerates, don’t worry), a shotgun, enemy arms and enemy heads. If your arm gets cut off, you basically become useless. You get very slow attacks, you can’t dodge and it takes a little while to regenerate. You can get it back by using any of the mask moves, but, if you don’t have a segment of the necro meter full, you have to run away for a short while with no means to defend yourself.
The game is quite repetitive, as it’s mostly just “Get in room with monster, kill a bunch of them/places them on spikes, go to next room to do the same thing”. But that’s sort of the nature of Beat ‘em Ups, and here you do gain more moves and powers as you progress through the game, so it doesn’t really get stale. And it’s not long enough to get stale anyways (yes, short length, for this type of game, is a good thing), clocking it at around 6-7 hours.
Side-scrolling segments
A reboot of an old game wouldn’t be complete without segments that play like the old games… right? Well, Splatterhouse delivers, with side-scrolling segments that are very reminiscent of the first 2 games. Other reviewers have actually bashed the side-scrolling segments for fairly stupid reasons like “you have to be precise with the platforming” and such. Yeah, a side-scrolling game with platforming aspects that requires you to be precise? CRAZY CONCEPT… Really though, these parts are simple fun. Nowhere near as hard as the original 2 games, but very interesting nonetheless.
What some people might like or not like in Splatterhouse
Story
I like the story. It’s not that deep and involving, but it’s still interesting. It’s a reboot of the original, so it starts with Jennifer and Rick going to West Mansion to meet with Doctor West about school. They get attacked by monsters, Rick is left to die, Jennifer gets kidnapped, and Rick dons the Terror Mask (voiced by the awesome Jim Cummings) to revive and become super huge and powerful. The rest of the game is spent chasing after Doctor West, through time portals and to different places. As you progress through the game, you learn about the game’s world and Henry West’s past (why he became a mad doctor and such), and a few really strong moments. I’ll say at the very least that it actually goes a lot deeper than the previous games in the series, and you actually get a good idea of Doctor West’s motivation.
One thing that made the original Splatterhouse so great is the ending, it wasn’t just a twist, it was downright fucked up, and probably one of the most disturbing game moments ever. Here, you also get a twist ending, but it’s not really creepy or disturbing, it’s just “oh, okay, that sets up for a sequel”. Not a great ending, but if it sets up to a good sequel I don’t mind.
Gore
The game is quite gory. I think people have overhyped the gore though, it’s not nearly as “bad” as we’ve been hearing both in previews and reviews. But there’s still some pretty violent stuff. Ripping people in half, ripping heads off, ripping out anuses… It’s not SUPER graphic, but it is fairly violent and there’s always blood flying everywhere. If you’re in for violent stuff, this is fine in that aspect. Not overly gory like so many people have been claiming, but it is amongst the more violent games this generation. I’ll say it’s about on par with its predecessors in regards, just a bit more since the graphics are technically better and more detailed.
Presentation
I like the graphics. Now they’re not great, definitely not. The shadows are pretty bad, the lighting is really weird (and sometimes downright terrible), the hair looks really strange, some of the textures are low res… Yet I like how the game looks. I think part of that is due to the fact that it doesn’t go for grey-brown gritty “realism” and instead goes at it in a fairly wacky look. Or the fact that it looks very B-movie-ish. It’s actually really colorful and fun to look at, which really contrasts with all the violence going on. Â The look has a very subtle semi-cel-shaded look which actually looks really nice. Tons of things are clearly based on the previous games in the series (as well as all the great influences the series had before).
While I was okay with the graphics, the musical choice is a bit weird. Splatterhouse had fairly haunting and creepy music in previous games, though the tunes were also fast-paced and exciting. They were really good and really fit with the environments and story of the game. Here, you have really bad metal. Don’t get me wrong, I love metal, I listen to it all the time, but the metal here… wouldn’t be really good outside of the game. It’s a screamy type of metal that I really don’t like, and I feel that it doesn’t go well with the feel of the game. Heck, I think my problem here is that there’s lyrics in the songs, if it were just instrumental metal I’d have less of a problem with it. But there’s still a massive lack of haunting/creepy music here.
What sucks about the game
Technical problems
The loading times, holy shit. Loading before starting the game being 25-35 seconds long isn’t too bad, if it happens only when you start playing. Here, you have at least 25 seconds long loading every time you die, and every time you get to another level/part of a level. If you get to a part that repeatedly kills you, you’ll be waiting more than you’ll actually be playing. It’s annoying.
Other technical problems like the lighting in the graphics  fucking up during splatterkills, or the final part of the game where I had to reduce the brightness because it was blindlingly white. And there’s glitches. Really weird glitches. 2 I got had me killed for no reason. One was at the end of a boss battle, where I got a game over screen during the cinematic, and another part had the camera moving to highlight certain things in the room, but it got stuck in one position and monsters started attacking me, killing me because I couldn’t do anything about it. There’s probably more, but I haven’t experienced it. Still, it’s really bad when a game has completely random glitches like that.
No horror
The previous Splatterhouse games, especially the first 2, had some scary and disturbing moments. This one? Well, there’s one jump scare. It comes out of nowhere, makes no sense, looks stupid and there’s nothing else like that random jump scare afterwards. And the metal music really downplays any kind of horror there might have been. There’s some mildly creepy scenery and stuff, but overall… kinda disappointing in that aspect.
Splatterkills
The splatterkills aren’t really interesting. There’s only like 6 of them (some repeat on different enemy types), so it gets really boring to just see the same splatterkills through the game. You can use them when an enemy is near death as a finishing blow. It really screws with the pace of the battles, it gets annoying. Oh, and the splatterkills are QTEs (AKA the laziest, lamest gameplay mechanic in modern gaming), so that’s not a good thing. But, while the splatterkills aren’t interesting, sadly enough they’re actually useful. You get more blood in the Necro meter when you kill that way, so you can get to Berserker mode faster or you get more uses for Mask moves, and more blood to buy upgrades. So you have this clearly bad and annoying mechanic, but it has a use so you feel like you need to do it from time to time to fill up your Necro meter and get more points for upgrades. It’s optional, but it’s so annoying.
Difficulty
The difficulty here isn’t bad, and I wasn’t sure if I should have put this in the “suck” section of the review or not. The gameplay is simple enough to be easy to pick up and play. But it’s also really damn easy. The Necro Meter fills up pretty fast, so you can almost always use the Splatter Siphon move to get health back, and you can power-up your moves to make things even easier. It’s really easy and never really tries to pose a challenge. That is until you get to a part near the end where whether or not you live is determined by LUCK. It’s a huge difficulty spike, pitting you against a bunch of really strong enemies one after another, where the first wave of enemies in that part can kill you in less than a second at full health (no, really, you get hit once and you’re 100% sure to die), with no checkpoints through that whole segment. And then the game goes back to being easy… WTF was that all about? I’m sort of fine with the game not putting up any challenge, but having completely random brick walls when the rest of the game is easy is just really stupid.
There is another difficulty level though, which makes things a bit harder in general, making the brick wall a bit more on level with the rest of the game, but still… wow.
Overall
Splatterhouse is a fairly competent reboot. The gameplay, while not perfect, is fairly good if you look at it as a Beat ‘em Up rather than an all-out action game like DMC. The story is interesting enough to care about, and simple enough so that it doesn’t take more importance than the gameplay. But the most important aspect here is that you have access to the 3 original Splatterhouse games (though sadly no Wanpaku Graffiti), which are great games.
It does have problems, like the terrible loading times, the QTEs, the lack of horror elements, the metal music which I didn’t appreciate (despite me being a big fan of metal), really bad glitches at parts, and the graphics aren’t as technically good as they should be (though they do have a nice style to them).
If you liked the classics, get this. Otherwise, I’d suggest to rent it first. I liked it, but most people probably won’t.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It has the classic Splatterhouse games
- A fun Beat ‘em Up
- Simple but fun story
- Fairly good side-scrolling segments
- Nude pics of Jennifer…. hey, I had to mention them at least…
- There’s a bit of extra content with the nude pics to find, difficulty levels and survival arenas…. and of course the 3 classic games
Cons
- The splatterkills suck and are QTEs
- There are QTEs other than the splatterkills
- No horror
- The metal music ruins the mood and isn’t really good
- Long loading
- Glitches
- It’s overwhelmingly easy, other than one brick wall near the end of the game… sort of inconsistent
The Save Factor
Let’s look at it this way. This game has the classic Splatterhouse games on it. Splatterhouse on TurboGrafx-16 costs around 25$ now, and that’s an inferior version to the one in this game. Splatterhouse 2 and 3 on the Genesis cost around 35$ each (sometimes more depending on where you look). So the classic games cost around 90$ altogether, usually more. You can spend 90$+ on the classic games (IF you have the consoles to play them on) plus shipping, or pay 60$ to get them all in addition to a fairly fun modern Beat ‘em Up on your PS3/360… Looking at it that way, it does seem very well priced.
If this didn’t include the original games, I’d say the Save Factor for this would be around 20$, but, with the classics here and very easy to unlock, around 50-60$ is a very good price… If you care about playing the classics at all. And, considering how this will probably not sell too much, it will probably go down in price fairly fast. So yeah, no Save Factor here.
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