Milestone #2

I just wanted to let everyone know that, as of 5:35PM PST, the blog has hit 1,000 views! Thanks to everyone who has kept reading the articles and giving me feedback! As of right now, the blog is on a small hiatus (only until next Monday, but I will attempt to update at least once this upcoming week - finals are a time-sink this year), but I will have some BIG stories coming in a few weeks. Expect a Portal 2 and Outland review on May 9th, and all information regarding the hacking of the Playstation Network and the current legal status of Sony (hint: they are currently being sued and the Department of Homeland Security is involved - who said video games weren't currently relevant?)

Things to look forward to in May:

-Portal 2 review
-Outland review
-Brink review
-LA Noire review
-Information on the PSN hacking
-pre-E3 updates
-and much more!

In related news - I hate papers. Just thought I'd add that in there.

News: Wii 2 / Project Cafe Confirmed

The successor to the Wii, which has yet to be named and is currently being called the "Wii 2" or "Project Cafe", has been officially confirmed by Nintendo. Most of the details about the console are only rumors at this point, but there will be a playable build of the system available when the console is officially unveiled at E3 2011 this year, which takes place from June 7-9.

Rumors thus far:
-Backwards compatible (this means the system will be able to play Wii games as well as Wii 2)
-Hardware rumored to be significantly greater than that offered by the Xbox or PS3 (which means graphics will be much better than what is currently available on any console - a much needed advancement, especially since the current Wii cannot compete with the graphical capabilities of the two current systems being offered by Microsoft and Sony
-a new controller that boasts both analog consoles (joysticks and buttons) and a touch screen (not sure how I feel about this news, but Nintendo usually knows what they are doing, for the most part)

Especially given that Microsoft and Sony likely don't plan on releasing a new console for another three years, this will certainly shift the playing field even further in Nintendo's direction - the Wii currently and consistently outsells both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Impressions: Sonic Generations

Sega recently announced the development of a new Sonic game, Sonic Generations, with the above trailer. This game, as a celebration of Sonic's 20th anniversary, is a return to form for Sega and Team Sonic, allowing the player to play Sonic as he was meant to be played, in classic 2D. I am very excited for this game; it's been a while since I have had the opportunity to play a Sonic game that was not completely terrible!

The Good:
2D Sonic - Sonic is a fast game, a fast game whose precision makes running around in 3D nearly impossible to do without killing the flow of the gameplay. Sonic was at his peak on the older consoles like the Sega Genesis when he was running around in two dimensions, and this seems like a return to form for the series. To be honest, this game just looks like it will be way better. There is no werewolf Sonic, no snowboards, no Mario, none of that garbage from the shovelware Sonic games Sega has been releasing for the last decade - this is Sonic as he's meant to be.

Nostalgia - This is Sonic as I played him as a kid. There was nothing wrong with him then, and there's nothing wrong with him now! This game is a total blast from the past.

The Bad/ The "Why?"

The Developer - Sega / Team Sonic is/are developing this game. Given their history, I am hoping for the best but expecting the worst on how this game ultimately ends up playing; Sega's track record with Sonic is less than stellar.

Impressions: Uncharted 3 Multiplayer and Beta

Naughty Dog, the developers of Uncharted 3, recently announced a very large amount of information pertaining to the game's multiplayer and what to expect from it. The developers have decided to overhaul the multiplayer system, but don't fret, Uncharted 2 fans: the gameplay itself is not really changing. They have not taken anything away; rather,they are just adding a boatload of new features to an already robust online mode.

First and foremost, this game has split-screen for online play. Yes, split-screen. Which means if your buddy is over, you no longer have to make him sit on the couch, hug a pillow, and wait for an hour as you level up "just one more time". Now he can play too!

There is now a completely revamped customization system for the game, as well. You can edit your weapons pretty much any way you want, which the above trailer alludes to, adding scopes, bigger clips, etc. In addition, you can edit your character as well, which are more of an aesthetic change than anything, but they do add a very cool amount of variety to the game - I'm giving my Nathan Drake some sweet shades when this game comes out!

Also worth noting is the addition of a 3-Team Deathmatch mode, which will certainly shake up the monotony of a normal Team Deathmatch game, and of a Buddy System, which rewards you for working together with a Buddy in multiplayer with points, special weapon boosters, and even a mobile respawn point!

But to the meat of this article: the beta. Sucker Punch has announced the release of a multiplayer beta for the game (to test for bugs / check that their servers can handle the amount of players they will have in the fall when the game releases) starting July 5th. Anyone who is a Playstation PLUS subscriber (not me) or who owns a copy of Infamous 2 by June 28th (me) will be able to download the beta a week early.

I. Am. Excited. Anyone else going to be online come July 5th?

Videos: Portal 2 Co-op and Funny Advertisements

I tried, internet. I tried so very hard to resist the siren song of this game. I feigned indifference during the E3 showing, shrugged off all the showings at various gaming conventions like PAX. I even pretended not to care when I found out that the release date is next week.

But then I found out that this game has a separate co-operative campaign, and that said campaign can be played online or in split-screen. I pre-ordered this game so fast it made my own head spin. I loved Portal; I thought the concept was cool as hell and Valve, as per usual, made a great game. I wasn't sure how I felt about Portal 2 being a single release, but two games in one box, and one of them is split-screen? Ooooh, count me in.

As expected, this game looks absolutely incredible, but I won't waste your time talking. Instead, here are several comical videos made to advertise the game, and a video of cooperative gameplay itself! Look for my review of this game in the later part of next week!




(The trust video, by far, is my favorite of the series.)





Gameplay, as promised (I apologize for the quality; it's filmed off a screen):

Impressions: Infamous 2's Mission Creation System

Infamous 2, a game I did an article on recently, is a single-player only game, something that has prospective customers a little leery of, as the single-player storyline does eventually end, even if it is as extensive as the first game's.

Not so anymore. Announced by Sucker Punch a few weeks ago, the game will have a "Mission Creator", where any user can create any type of mission to then play out as Cole. What's cool about the Mission Creator is just how expansive it is - you can insert checkpoints, decide which enemies will appear in which parts of your level, and even insert text as story points to give your mission its very own plot!

To put it simply, I absolutely love the idea and think it is very novel. You are essentially given the tools to craft your own superhero storyline, complete with bad guys, damsels in distress, and the craziest scenarios you can think of. This is the kind of thing I would love to see implemented in all sandbox-style video games (including Grand Theft Auto... can you imagine how cool it would be to create your own missions?!).

I have a small issue with the fact that you cannot design the level itself for your mission (you just use whatever part of the city, New Marais, for your level), but it is a very small gripe. Often when you see level creation in a game, its in a fairly linear game with a relatively small scope; simply put, there is not enough space in the single-player areas to allow for customization. Not so in this expansive open world. I am very excited to see what users come up with when this game comes out; several examples of which can be seen here).

A limited beta is scheduled to begin today, but unfortunately I will be unable to participate due to an increased workload with finals just around the corner; I will be sure to post any videos I find of user-generated content as it is posted on Youtube.

News: Brink Release Date Change

The upcoming multiplayer shooter Brink has done what is almost unheard of in the gaming industry today: Bethesda, the publisher, has moved up its release date, instead of delaying the game. The game will now be available in stores starting on the May 10th, 2011 for North America and May 13th, 2011 for Europe. I admit, when I first heard the news, I was totally blown away. A very large percentage of games in the industry experience some type of delay these days; it is almost a common practice. I can think of only a couple examples of dates being moved up in the entire history of my life as a gamer.

Brink is a title that I have been looking forward to for quite some time. Its promotion of the idea of an entirely multiplayer game (if you play the game in single player, it will be the same as it would be online save for you playing with bots instead of people) is one that is not done that often these days, save for a couple titles, and it promises to be a fresh new take on the shooter franchise. The story of a dystopian future, coupled with a fantastic art direction (this game looks great, and the character models have a very unique design that is immediately distinguishable as being from this game), and a very interesting parkour system a la the "S.M.A.R.T" button, have made this game an interest of mine since it was first announced several years ago. The ability to completely customize your character's appearance and weapons has been a pretty big selling point for me as well.

I am including several videos below to give you a feel for what this game will be like when it launches a little less than a month from now.

Impressions: Infamous 2 "Quest For Power" Trailer

To say that I am looking forward to this game is a bit of an understatement. I love superhero stories, whether they be in comics, books, movies, or games, so it should come as no surprise that I was a big fan of the first game, even if it was a tad repetitive. Luckily, from what I've seen in gameplay trailers, this game seems to be rectifying all of the faults from the first. In the first game, you played as Cole, a guy who delivers packages until one explodes in your hands, destroying a portion of the city but granting you electricity-based superpowers in return. The upcoming second game has you reprising the role of Cole in a different city akin to New Orleans, having had to run from a foe he was not ready to face yet in search of new and more powerful abilities (as it turns out, he is not the only "super" in the world). I really enjoyed the story of the games, and it had one of the most surprising and gratifying final twists of any game I have played before, which completely changed the dynamic of the game's events and what they were building to; without spoiling too much, the foe you encounter at the beginning of Infamous 2 is a foe Cole is warned about in the first game.

One of the cooler parts of the first game was the way the story was told, which was mostly through comic book-style storyboards with a voice-over. While not as technically impressive as a cinematic or in-engine cutscene, it did help to reassure superhero fans such as myself that it was a title that was very aware of the roots of all great superheroes (comics) and paid homage to them in a way that was not cheesy or lazy. These comic-book sequences will be returning in Infamous 2, but in addition to in-engine cutscenes; I've included one of the cutscenes from the new game at the bottom of this post. What I will not miss from the first game? Cole's "I need to pee" run, which he did if you were standing on ledges or just not sprinting:



If you're wondering what this game plays like, imagine Grand Theft Auto if you were trained in parkour and had superpowers. You scale buildings, grind rails like a mag-lev train, and rain down lightning strikes on streets full of enemies. It is definitely as cool as it sounds. I'm including several trailers of this awesome-looking game below to give all you readers a feel for what you'll be playing come June.

But the real reason you should play this game: because you can lift up a car with your mind and throw it like a football *insert nerdy giggles here*. If that was the only thing I knew about this game, I would still pre-order it.

Video: LA Noire Trailer #3 - "The Set-Up"

Today Rockstar Games posted their third official trailer for their upcoming crime investigation game, LA Noire, due out in May. Having previewed this game before in previous posts, I won't say much here to distract you from watching the trailer. As per usual, it looks absolutely awesome, especially with the inclusion of John Noble. I am very excited for May.

Review: Spiral Knights

Spiral Knights is a free-to-play MMORPG made by Sega, whom everyone should know as the developers of the classic Sonic games, and available for the PC. This is a title that I actually came across completely by chance after noticing a tiny little blurb on Kotaku's website a couple days ago that this had been released, and it looked curious enough to warrant setting up an account and giving the game a try. Although I have not gotten very far into the game, which I attribute to both schoolwork and the fact that if I play any game longer than thirty minutes on my computer, it overheats and shuts off, I am very much enjoying this game thus far and am offering my impressions below:

The Good:

Gameplay - For anyone who ever played the old-school Zeldas (before Ocarina of Time), this game is very similar. It's a simple hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, focusing on loot collection and upgrading your weapons/armor. While simple in execution (it's very simple to pick up and play through a dungeon), there's a level of complexity to the game in terms of upgrades whose surface I have yet to scratch, and am still figuring out.

Controls - Hold the left mouse button to move in the direction the mouse is pointing, attack with the right mouse button. Very simple.

Art Design - This is a colorful and very cool-looking game. Graphically-speaking, it is not a demanding game, but for a free-to-play game, it is very creatively designed and colored. The design of the Clockwork especially (the staging area for the dungeons) is surprisingly awesome for what I was expecting from this game (not much).

Addicting - This game will pull you in. Nothing you can do about it. Just submit. But seriously, it does hook you in the strangest of ways - it is not the most intricate game, but the nostalgia and fun experienced while playing it will have you coming back for more.

The Bad/ The "Why?":

"Free" - This game is not exactly "free to play", as it claims. It is free to join and to play at first, but in order to make any progress, you need to buy energy with a credit card (or paypal, whichever you choose). You are given an allotment of 100 energy points, to be used to revive yourself in combat or to progress through dungeons. Unfortunately, 100 points does not get you very far, as it takes about 24 hours to fully regenerate the 100 points. You are thusly forced into buying energy - not so free after all, eh? I understand the inclusion of the system, as you cannot develop a game like this for free and expect to break even, but I feel this is a form of false marketing that is very present in the gaming industry these days.

Complexity - I like that this game has depth, I do. But I would like to be able to access that depth by knowing what the hell I am doing, which I most definitely do not. Short of explaining attacks and the game world (barely) to you, you are left to figure out everything else on your own. There is no in-game guide, nor is there one on the website. It is a bit of a frustrating oversight.

My Score: 8/10
This game greatly surpassed my expectations for what to expect from a free-to-play MMO game. The dungeon crawling is a very fun bit of nostalgia that does not linger in the past unnecessarily, and the simplicity of the controls makes this an easy game for anyone to pick up and play. The payment system for energy is not my favorite thing in the world, but it is a necessary evil. The fact that it costs nothing to pick up and try out for a day, along with the fact that you do not need to download it (you can play it from the website), makes this a must-try.

Recommendation: Give it a try.