You know it’s a MMO because there is a big blob of purpleness
It’s been a while since I last got into an MMORPG and probably for a good reason. They take up a lot of time and I have a very short attention span when it comes to them. However, I thought I would attempt to try, one last time and enter a online universe. One thing I did find is that the choice out there is HUGE! There are loads of free to play MMO’s everywhere, some looking better than others. In the end I settled on Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine. Primarily because after spending a bit of time in the universe of those games, I kind of like them, so feel like I could manage investing time into it.
So, you are welcome to join me on my quest through the world of Jack Frosts and Slimes. All you have to do is go here, sign up to aeria games, download the 1.2GB setup and we’re good to go. I’m going to be at some point broadcasting it live, so it would be good to get a few more people involved. We’ll sort out grouping together if we get enough people, so I hope to see you there. Even if the game is confusing and maddening at the same time.. WE WILL BATTLE THROUGH IT! Whatever the qyality, we will be able to offset it with hijinks if we get a few people involved, so get involved!
If you are still very confused, watch this and it may help you…Slightly.
Just some quick news, apparently, a video on youtube shows some French dude unwrapping his copy of Halo ODST, which he claimed that he bought over the counter at a store. The video that I saw has since being pulled by the user himself, but it looked legit as any game release does. Just perhaps 4 weeks early.
Microsoft France released a statement claiming that if anyone was found to be played ODST when logged into Xbox Live they would be banned from it. Now my question is sh0uld the person who bought the game, legally and legitimatly, despite the fact his guy obviously knew the game wasn’t supposed to be out yet, be punished, or should the retailer for releasing a anticipated title way to early. Either way, copies of ODST are floating around out there, so expect playthrough footage to be appearing over the “intenetz” very soon.
In the mean time, watch this clip from E3 of ODST, just to wet your appetite:
“Weren’t expecting that, were you?”
Coming from the developer of Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls series, you wouldn’t expect Bethesda to be really publishing a stylish, 70s set Devil May Cry clone. Well that is what Artificial Mind & Movement have done with WET. You take up the role of Rubi, a mysterious, sword wielding, double pistol touting women who really doesn’t take no shit. WET is kind of defined as Wetworks, and is suitable for what this demo does.
The first thing to say perhaps about the WET demo I played is that at last it’s a proper demo. By that I mean it shows you the key elements of the game, teaches them to you very quickly and sets you off on a level. The fact that it doesn’t really give you much of a idea towards the plot is probably a good thing, as it allows you to concentrate on the very straightforward task at hand.
Gameplay wise, you’ve probably seen a lot of what WET offers, but it’s the way it offers it which makes the demo at least so appealing. You interupt a meeting gone bad, and whilst the begining essentially guides you through the 3 ways for Rubi to move through the environment and how the shooting works when doing this. You can jump, slide and wallrun, and whilst doing these just by a button press doesn’t add any extra animation, if you do these and then begin shooting, you go into a slo-mo, twirly bullet time mode, which allows you to take out quite a few enemies in one move. This works the same for when you slide along the floor or wall run, with Rubi automatically pointing her other gun at the second target.
However, Rubi doesn’t just have guns to dispatch her foes, she uses a sword in a pretty gory way. From sliding along the ground and then swinging the sword upwards, or spinning off a wallrun then cutting some dudes down. Whilst the mechanics of both of these are pretty simple, it’s execution appears to be its highpoint, for the moment anyway. It uses a system of giving you points depending on the way you have killed them, essentially how stylish, quickly and efficiently you get rid of enemies.
One thing that is uniform throughout the game is that it has a definite attitude straight out of the 70′s. Not the corney, over the top 70′s, but a bloody, angry and stylised 70s. Environment’s played through the demo for the most part look like they are from the period, and the game has a “cinema reel” look to it, with artifacts on screen, although without that, you probably wouldn’t care when it was set. Other examples of this attitude is that when you find a health pick up, a lovely dose of alcohol, Rubi throws it up in the air and shoots it in half. Just cause she can.
There is a few “gamey” elements that appear in different places. So towards the conclusion of the first part, you have to disable “spawn points”, which is basically just destroying something that makes a shutter fall down over a door. I’m not sure if this the same in different levels,but seems a bit unoriginal. During a scene where you are jumping from car to car, it generally comes down to a quicktime event, but I found the buttons not quite being clear enough. Sometimes I’d mash it, other times press it once and not always would it be picked up.
If Rubi goes in a strop, you sure know about it
Another major gamey thing, but is probably more of a positive than the previous two, is that Rubi has a Rage mode. This in the demo is shown by after killing an enemy, her face gets covered in blood. In this mode, the colour pallete changes to a bland, almost Mirror’s Edge look, with pistols firing at double speed and double your normal health. I’m not entirely sure how clearly this is triggered in the main gameplay mode, or even if it can, but it was useful to getting rid of lots of enemies and gain lots of points.
WET is a stylised and interesting take on the genre, but my fear for it, mirrored by what others have said, is that it could get hit by the main fault of this type of game. It could get very repetitive and even with more moves and possibly more weapons, it could struggle to keep the pace. I feel that WET could be a double edged sword. Make it too long, and gamers get bored and the mechanics become tired, make it too short and it becomes expensive. WET is something we nearly have all seen before, but if it can pull it off, it may take the hack ‘n slash ‘n shoot crown.
WET is coming out on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (demo played) on the 15th September (US) and 18th September (UK)
“Hey, let me, tell you, about this little game called World of Warcraft!”
Did you know that there is currently a big gathering of fans of all things Blizzard? Well there is, and I’m going to give you a quick round up of the news that is coming out for each of Blizzards big games, it’s enough to make a fan boy explode.
World Of Warcraft
Someone is really not happy with what has been going on in Azeroth
Couldn’t ignore this one, the 11 million behemoth is still going strong.
New Expansion pack: Cataclysm
There is a new expansion pack planned that aims to take you back to the land where you started the game, that being Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Apparently, Deathwing, one of the Immortal Dragon aspects from Warcraft III decides to go on a bit of a rampage in these kingdoms, causing a “Cataclysm” as it erupts from the earth and causes all kinds of natural disasters to occur.
Some parts of the world will be split up and cut off
From volcanic trenches, tidal waves, constant storms and a lot more, the world will be ravanged and changed.
Here is the debut trailer for the new expansion, showing a before and after of some areas of the land as well as setting up some of the new conflicts, new horde race of Goblins and new alliance race of Worgons, as well as a bunch of new stuff, all described in the most dramatic way possible by the narrator.
Some more information to be gleaned from this is:
- New Level cap of 85, due to greater focus on content for new characters as well as endgame content.
- Flying mounts can no go anywhere
- New class combinations mean you can pretty much mix and pick what you want, from undead hunters to blood elf priests.
- Achivements are going to be added for guilds, which you can earn from doing a variety of different, everday things, from raids and questing.
You also will be getting new, higher level zones:
- Uldum: A hidden zone with an Egyptian theme and is rumoured to hide some sort of super weapon.
- Deepholm: The place where Deathwing originally had a home, will act as a portal to the other higher level areas
- Twighlight Highlands: Home to the cult of the Twilight’s Hamme, apparently will play a big part in the future of WoW
- Sunken City of Vashj’ir: Underwater, so it’s underwater mount time, and will be out in the middle of the ocean
- Mount Hyjal: Though technically in the game for some time, the scene of the climax from Warcraft III is going to be the scene of some big battles, with it being held under seige by Ragnaros.
The big thing from this is that Cataclysm will go out to all players through a patch. Well, the part of destroying the world will anyway. This is mainly to bring a fresh, if pretty chaotic feel to the world. This means that whilst all the features above will be the expansion, you will all, regardless of whether you have the pack or not, get to experience Azeroth as it falls towards the end of the world…Cue South Park joke here.
Resident Evil 4: Wii actually looks pretty good upscaled, minus a few jaggies
I personally doubt that the people who, according to those nausiating Nintendo Adverts, have hours of fun on their Wii, have the need for High Definition graphics. However, I also know that there are many Nintendo fans who are hunting around for some ways to make the Wii match that of the 360 and PS3. The problem with that mind, is that you do it without actually using the Wii itself.
I point you to exhibit A:
Youtube user Renebarahona has made a series of videos using a pretty powerful PC and Wii Emulator Dolphin. However,he does make a point that he does actually own the games and rips them onto his computer, rather than nicking them from some torrent site.There is no denying that the games, even GameCube games look loads better upscaled to whatever resolution, but is it even a feature that people want? But atleast this proves that if a Wii was released with upscaling capabilities, it would look pretty good.
I’m not sure about that to be hoenst, but if there are any Wii owners out there who feel that HD would make them happier about the console let us know.
These two gentlemen urge you to boogie down to the video page
When I occasionally get time to write a personal blog, I usually write it on an issue close it my heart, discussing the big things that are going on in my life, or quite often something completely random that I believe bears a little importance to someone.
Well today, I’m taking a break from that to push one of our new videos, that being of course, the Rock Band 2 Challenge. Part 1 of the video is up here and I have had confirmation that the second part, with the thrilling conclusion, will be up very soon. So check out the links, or, if you don’t feel like leaving the brilliance of this page, watch the embedded version below.
People talking the language of games, and a bit of GT5
As the news coming from Gamescon begins to mop up, there are a few little pieces of information that slipped ever so slightly under the radar. GT5 was shown off to the crowds and whilst it looked as good as most of the GT games do, there was something important missing. I think that left people feeling empty and deflated. That thing, was the release date.
Whilst Sony or Polophony may not realise this, people actually want to get their hands on this game, and have done so ever since Concept was released as a free downloadable title when the ps3 was released, over two years ago. Turns out they are definietly trying for a Q4 release, or in other terms, the end of this year.
A german brochure from Gamescon reveals that they have set the release date at “4. Quartal 2009″ and depsite my poor attempts at learning German, it doesn’t take much to guess what that means. Anyway, here is a translated version of the fact sheet from the nice people over at GT Planet
Developer: Polyphony – Platform: PS3
Genre: Racing – Number of players: T.B.A.Release: 4th Quarter of 2009
THE ULTIMATE RACING GAME RETURNS
(lots of stupid PR blah blah, really nothing important)
The player can choose between over
1000 cars to race on incredible detailed racetracks and unlock PlayStation Trophies (blah).
The new NASCAR and WRC championships improve theGran Turismo experience. Players are challenged to fight their way up the online leaderboards against other racedrivers from all over theworld.
So, lots of cars, lots of championships, and hopefully, lots of licenses, I sure do love those things…
Hiro’s height won’t stop him taking on the huge/average sized samurai ninja bloke
It appears that not all developers have given up completely on the “cartoony platforming” vibe of some of the early 3D games that appeared. Whilst not reminding players of a paticular game, it appears from the recent demo of Mini Ninjas, that IO Interactive’s mission seems to be to create a quirky fun platformer, which is easy to pick up and play, yet hides a surprisingly large amount of depth.
In Mini Ninja’s, you take up the main role as Hiro, a little ninja who in our demo, is off to help a friend find some of his fellow ninjas which have gone missing and to investigate the appearence of samurai carrying a mysterious crest on their banners. That’s the rough plot set up, Now onto the real business of, how does it play.
Well, like any platofrmer of past 10-15 years, it involves you being able to run around a colourful, if pretty linear version of Feudal Japan. There are brief, “Lego Games” style cutscenes, setting out what is happening, what you need to do and then letting you get on with it. It has all the elements of a hack’n slash, with a basic attack button and a “power attack” which is enhanced by the collection of gems (suprise suprise there) and a block button, indicating that despite the enemies in the demo, some may require a bit more technique than just hammering on the attack button.
The samurai’s you are fighting come in a few forms througout the demo, from the bog standard sword fodder, to a red version that is a bit tougher and a bit handier with the block, spear men, a commander type and a large boss type. So variation on the design is pretty slim, that kind of fits in with the variation of attacking. The option to change character during the game is a touch which is obviously designed to add some logitivity to the exploration areas of the game, and although I could only play as Hiro or the stereotypical “big dude and big hammer” and “sleek and slender girl ninja”, you’ll find yourself going back to the happy medium of Hiro for most of the demo anyway.
There are enemies of all different sizes and types that need despatching…If not too stealthily
There is not only just characters you can change when it comes to the taking on the world of mini ninjas. There are loads of things that are collectable from flowers, which some characters will ask you to find for them…Despite the fact they are only just down the path from them, as well as activating shrines to give you more magic or other bonuses. Yes magic indeed, you have access to all sorts of things, in the demo for example we have a inferno and thunderstorm spell which are used against enemies and a spell which allows you to take control of an animal, many of which are around the place, seeing as the samurai turn into foxes, rabbits, frogs and many more, and a spell letting you find your way to one of the aforementioned shrines.
The radial menu allows you to add any of the many pieces of kit you quickly acquire as you go about your adventure. Not all as are useful as others, but you can equip anything from a fishing rod to shuriken. One of the main drawbacks with the system is that if you are another ninja, most of the offensive spells and items could not be used unless you are Hiro. Although the hats you can find, although I only had access to one during the demo, gives all ninjas some kind of help, for example letting you row a hat-boat down the streams and ravines, useful when it makes it part of the level.
The DS version looks to be fitting straight in with the style, perhaps even enhancing areas
MN seems, from what I have played appears to be aimed at the game aware kid, rather than perhaps the person who has heavily refined their skills on many different platforming titles. It teases you along a path, with the amount of hints and pointers I recieved in the first five minutes, although from the demo I didn’t get the feeling of it being a cheaply made title. It’s clean and vaguely reminscent of what I used to play years ago, and even has a little of a Croc feel (the quicker this system comes in so I can show you that game, the better) .
Without playing through the full game, I couldn’t tell you if it is going to turn into a boring hack fest, or continue with the charm and rolls on that soley, though the fact it’s downloadable and out on Wii and DS can only work in it’s favor.
Mini Ninjas is coming out on PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 (demo played) and Xbox 360 later this year.
In this “two days in advance” podcast, Josh, Matt, Stevie and Rob discuss a variety of topics from Rock Band 2, the Wii Horse riding seat (parental discretion advised) and whether downloadable content is a good idea. That and more in your weekly Ignition. Also, send us your questions on video games, game engine or near enough anything and we’ll attempt to answer as many as we can on the podcast, so comment below!
Duration: 1:30:38
Once again a sports game is brought out just as there is a major event in the world of that sport and Ashes Cricket is no different. It’s come out … well … for the Ashes which, for those of you that don’t know, is a set of 5 test matches played between England and Australia. In short the game is like all other cricket games on the consoles, choose which type of shot you want to play or how you want to bowl and hit the button at the right time.
The game play is split into three parts, batting, bowling and fielding. The batting, I have to say, is possibly the most realistic batting I have seen in a game. It really does feel like getting an inside edge could cause a catch at slip, for none cricketers don’t hit ball right and the guy standing too close to the bat will catch it and, if I time my shot perfectly, I can dance down the wicket and loft it for a six In baby speak you can move closer to the ball coming at you and hit it really hard in the air so it scores you 6 points. It all seems well balanced for the batting side and will keep you on your toes as the match goes on and the ball starts to swing.
For bowling and fielding things get a little more complicated (yes that means more cricketing vocabulary). All of your bowlers have a variety of deliveries based on their individual bowling style so you fast bowlers can use fast (quick delivery), slow (still a fast delivery), cutters (a ball that moves while in the air) techniques, which are just 3 of the 10 goodies for fast bowlers. The spin bowlers have leg and off spin (spinning to or away from the batsman), doosra (even I don’t know) and other deliveries (all of which I forget because the best technique to win was to get my fast bowlers delivering as wide as I dared so that the batsman left the ball alone and scored nothing). The fielding involves setting up your players and a catching mini game where the ball gets closer and the circle changes colour and you press a button to catch. With green being a perfect catch and red meaning that your fielder dropped it, this is actually much more gripping than you might think.
All the your decisions are made easier by the onscreen menu that shows if the ball is worn enough to spin or which button to press for exactly which ball type to deliver, somehow even though this is on screen at all times it is not intrusive into the main gameplay.
The graphics on this game are very much sports game graphics they are vey good when zoomed out and the stadiums look realistic but once you zoom into the face of a player it becomes a face that only a mother could love (that’s ugly for those of you that don’t understand)
My biggest concern with this game is that there won’t be much else to do, I mean there are other match types (twenty20 or one day [50 overs]), but if it’s all England vs. Australia then its going to get very repetitive very quickly even for cricketing fans. I decided rather than doing a half arsed preview I will look at this up, there are other test match teams available to use and even some none test teams, all of which are fully licensed so real names and (supposedly) real likenesses.
The wii version does seem to have motion control batting and bowling… with just makes it a more realistic version of wii sports baseball, but as I played the 360 demo I cant really comment too much.
Ashes cricket isn’t likely to convert the people that aren’t into cricket games already simply because it is too complex if you don’t have any idea of the starting point.
Ashes Cricket 2009 is out on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC
