Jan 30
Like certain other “episodes” we’ve been impatiently anticipating for quite some time, GTA IV’s two after-dinner mints have taken nearly as long to arrive as the main course. But at least GTA IV has a good (ish) reason. You see, Microsoft struck a timed exclusivity deal with Rockstar… for the Xbox. PC, not so much.
So now, nearly one year after the first of the two episodes launched, GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City has escaped from the Xbox’s supermax prison to wreak havoc on the PC (and PS3, in case you’re keeping count).
The two packs – known as “The Lost and the Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony” – are launching on March 30, and will come bundled together in stores or separately as DLC.
So, who’s up for another 30 or so hours of car-stealing, murder, drug dealing, and whatever else you crazy kids are into these days?
written by cimaul
Jan 30
There are a few signature characteristics of Call of Duty games—at least, the ones developed by series-creator Infinity Ward. First, the games feel real. The story unfolds as you play through a conflict as a few normal soldiers—regular guys on the ground who find themselves thrust into extraordinary events. They aren’t supermen. The campaigns are plausible, even if they’re fictionalized or set in the near future, reinforcing the feeling that the experience could take place in the real world. The third characteristic is that there’s usually a deep, engaging multiplayer experience thrown in the game for free. Unfortunately, in this outing, Infinity Ward whiffed on all three counts, much to our dismay.
Let’s start with the seven-hour single-player campaign. Instead of playing as normal grunts in this year’s entry, you end up playing as junior varsity supermen—an American soldier who’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time and the protégé of one of the characters you played in Continue reading »
written by cimaul
Jan 29
Do you ever find yourself sitting down and thinking, “Man, I sure wish Resident Evil 5 was more like the original games instead of being like RE4″? Apparently, someone at Capcom thought the same thing. We got to check out the first downloadable episode for RE5, titled “Lost in Nightmares,” and it pretty much feels like an HD version of the original Resident Evil.
The basic premise is that you as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine as they explore Spencer Mansion, a.k.a. the same spot that RE1 took place. Specifically (mild spoiler warning, highlight to see if you’ve already played RE5): the sequence where Chris and Jill are in the mansion and Continue reading »
written by cimaul
Jan 29
There’s a lot to soak in when seeing, or playing, Red Dead Redemption for the first time. There’s obvious stuff, like how it applies a lot of Rockstar’s open-world principles into the setting of the rural West. Or how in addition to the open-world mechanics, the core combat now features prominently features cover. Or the fact that it just plain looks nice. A lot of this is stuff you can easily see in either screenshots, or the series of gameplay trailers that Rockstar has been releasing.
Recently, Justin Haywald and I actually got to play some of RDR’s missions. We play scenarios, such as when John Marston (the main character — what you need to know is that he’s a former gang fellow who’s been pressed into hunting his former fellow gangmembers by the Justice Department) accompanies a local Marshall to taking on the Walton Gang. Or when Marston encounters a rancher who asks him to rescue a daughter-held-hostage. Or when he and a colorful fellow known only as “Irish” work together to secure a Gatling gun. But amidst all the big details, such as the Honor and Continue reading »
written by cimaul
Jan 28
I find it a bit odd that, after finishing Army of Two: The 40th Day’s campaign in about seven hours, what I remember most isn’t its co-op mechanics, nor its cast of mask-wearing musclemen. Sure, I eventually think about that stuff when I put my mind to it, but in all honesty, what I remember most about my experience with The 40th Day is the handful of choices I made during the story, and how some of those choices made me feel like a terrible person.
To be clear, The 40th Day maintains the “modern day third-person shooter focused on co-op” formula of its predecessor (right down to the goofy Aggro system where one player glows orange when enemies are focused on him, while the other player glows white to signify his current stealthiness). In fact, it generally improves on said formula (I would have personally given the original game a C+). And Continue reading »
written by cimaul
Jan 28
Capcom has been teasing a Japanese announcement this week in conjunction with Microsoft, and tonight’s event and accompanying press release revealed what many suspected: Monster Hunter Frontier Online is coming to the Xbox 360. The company is aiming for a summer launch of the game, which will be a port of the PC MMORPG. Reports out of the event itself claim it will cost fans 1400 yen (about $15) per month to play. The 360 servers will be separate from the existing PC ones, but Continue reading »
written by cimaul
Jan 28
The story involves returning hero Travis Touchdown, the slightly punkified otaku who, after two years of retirement from the assassin scene, finds out that his friend Bishop (owner of Beef Head Video) is murdered, seemingly without pretense. Travis goes into a blind rage and vows to find his friend’s killer(s), all of this happening at the same time that Sylvia Christel, the sultry agent of the United Assassins Association, invites Travis back to the world of ranked assassin combat.
Superficially, Desperate Struggle is amazing: The first game’s muddy, low-detail, harshly-shadowed characters are completely refined here, boasting greater detail all around. Throw in better animation, flashier effects and even nicer-looking environments as you run around the city, and Desperate Struggle makes itself one of the best-looking Wii games in its category. But naturally, the city is going to look better when you take out the option to explore it. The open-world part of the first NMH felt like wasted potential, adding a few extra minutes in between missions for no real reason. Now it’s just a big, pretty-looking menu, where you can jump back and forth between Travis’ place, boss areas, and side jobs. In short, dumping the exploration is a pretty smart design revision that deserves praise.
But the beat-em-up nature of NMH’s combat is what made the first game stand out, so it’s no surprise that Desperate Struggle doesn’t try to rewrite the book. Except for a couple of tweaks, the fighting looks and Continue reading »
written by cimaul
