Tag: PC

Make Your Own Transformer In The Latest Trailer For ‘Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron’!

by MoreLikeAndy

From the looks of the new multiplayer trailer for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, everything we at Geekscape loved about the multiplayer in War for Cybertron is back. More customizations, bigger maps and faster gameplay will make jumping into multiplayer worth it when Fall of Cybertron releases August 21st. I just hope the customization of your character allows for me to make a Dinobot to use.

 

Revenge, Mrs. Chu Style In ‘Sleeping Dogs’ Latest Walkthrough Video

by MoreLikeAndy

With the release of Sleeping Dogs looming, Square Enix decided to let loose another walkthrough video to tease us even more. This time, United Front Games’ Producer Dan Sochan narrates a mission that has Wei Shen doling out some street justice for Golden Koi’s owner, Mrs. Chu.

From the driving to the amazing combat scenarios that play out in the mission walkthrough, I am yearning to play Sleeping Dogs. All the points are hit for an action movie lover such as myself. Fast cars with the sense of darting in and out of traffic at really unsafe speeds, Seamless transitions from cutscene to action, fluid combat that makes Batman lurk in the dark filled with envy and story beats that any Hong Kong action film fan would be happy with. Ok, enough with the talking. Just push the damn button already!

 

Sleeping Dogs releases on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 14th, which is still not soon enough for me.

More Conundrum To Contemplate In The Quantum!

by MoreLikeAndy

Extending the already wonderful puzzler, Quantum Conundrum, two new downloadable packs has just been announced by Square Enix.

First up is The Desmond Debacle. For a drinking bird, Desmond sure is devious with the puzzles he produces for us to solve in a new, unexplored wing of the Quadwrangle Manor. The Desmond Debacle will hit July 31 on Steam, August 14 on PSN and August 15 for XBLA.

Coming almost a month later, IKE-aramba! will put everyone back on call for rescue duty. IKE (Interdimensional Kinetic Entity) ends up being the one needing the rescue this time in place of Professor Fitz. Expect IKE-aramba! to release August 28 on Steam, September 11 on PSN and September 12 for XBLA.

Both DLC packs will be $2.99 each or if you were savvy enough to get the season pass for Quantum Conundrum, the DLC will be free.

SDCC 2012 Video Game Round-Up: Aliens: Colonial Marines

by jake108

The Alien franchise is very near and dear to many hearts in geekdom. Of course, the importance of canon, storytelling, characters, and mythology surrounding this universe goes without saying. One should only expect amazing video games based on the universe.

Enter Aliens: Colonial Marines. This FPS shooter, with Xeno-baddies vs. Marine combat, is sure to spark gamers’ interest. The concept sounds great. Squad-based combat set in dark, creepy environments filled with Aliens running around on walls, ceilings, vents, and who knows what else. Even better, players are allowed to be Aliens themselves. Unfortunately, SEGA may have much to work on before this title goes gold.

Read up on the synopsis below!

You and your friends against the deadliest killers in the galaxy. Another glorious day in the corps.Buckle up, soldier! Welcome to Aliens: Colonial Marines. Created by Gearbox, the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite developers of Borderlands and Brothers In Arms, this first-person shooter is steeped in the eerie, claustrophobic and terrifying atmosphere that made the Aliens films successful worldwide. You and your friends will become the most badass military outfit in the galaxy – the US Colonial Marines. It’s down to you to not just survive but wipe out the Xeno infestation.Features:Enlist in the Marine Corps
Bringing you a true sequel to James Cameron’s classic Aliens, get tooled up with classic Marine weapons including pulse rifles, motion trackers and flamethrowers.The most authentic Aliens experience ever
Using authentic environments inspired by the film series including Hadley’s Hope, the Sulaco and LV-426, you will be immersed in an eerie, atmospheric world where any moment could bring your death.Drop-in / Drop-out co-operative gameplay
The masters of co-op bring their expertise to the Aliens universe. Xenos getting too tough? Call up your buddies so they can drop in with extra firepower. The whole campaign can be played with a squad of up to four players, dropping in and out as necessary through self-contained missions within an over-arching narrative.Loadouts and upgrades
Create your perfect killing machine. An extensive upgrade system allows players to customize their characters to play the way they want. Earn experience to get perks, new weapons and new looks for your squad.

Honestly, I’m worried about this game. It seems that the excitement that’s down on paper didn’t translate very well into gameplay. I wanted to like this game, but it felt very generic in a universe that spawned so much inspiration. I wasn’t able to actually play as a Xenomorph, but I was able to view live gameplay of SEGA employees who were playing as them. I won’t criticize the player model movement, or even the graphics engine itself. What worries me is the level of expectation I, and I’m sure many fans have or had.

E3 2012 Off-Screen Gameplay Footage

Over the shoulder gameplay footage from Comic-Con 2012

Xenomorph attacks are class based into two classes. Also keep mind that different classes may arise as the year goes by. The attacks themselves were pretty standard. Claw, jump, run on walls and ceiling, and pouncing.

Playing as a Marine is what you’d expect. You’re able to aim down the sights, use secondary fire options, and heavy weapons. The sense of urgancy that’s clear from the films is absent, and instead, it feels like I’m just shooting aliens and not Xenomorphs. Yeah, it was cool fighting alongside other players, helping each other out whenever we got cornered, but it’s just not what I expected.

A prime example is the screenshot above. That screenshot alone makes me want to buy the game. Playing the game should be able to translate feeling too. With a solid four months of crunch time, there is still hope for Colonial Marines. With some tweaks here and there, perhaps the horror in the title will arise, and Aliens: Colonial Marines will be able to proudly represent the Alien Universe.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is hitting the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC February 2, 2013.

SDCC 2012 Video Game Round-Up: Resident Evil 6

by jake108

Yet another installment of the Resident Evil franchise is upon us. Die-hard fans of the series rejoice while others who aren’t too involved, like me, may ask what all the fuss is about. Story and gameplay is what matters most to me, and Resident Evil just happens to have three different campaigns. Sounds awesome, right?!

I was able to play two out of the three confirmed campaigns. I took on the roles of Jake and Chris in their own separate missions. Both campaigns have similarities in gameplay, but are different enough to differentiate one from another. Both characters also moved differently and had different fighting styles. At one point or another, the player is going to have to chose whether or not you want to conserve bullets and fight hand to hand, or in Chris’ case, blade to fist.

HUDs are different as well as weapons and enemies. Sizes of enemies and bosses will also vary depending on what campaign you’re playing. If you haven’t caught any of the trailers yet, you can view the Comic-Con 2012 and E3 2012 trailers below:

Anyone who thinks RE6 will be better when playing cooperatively is 100% correct. I personally can’t wait to bump the game up to the highest difficulty and play through each campaign.

 

As for who I enjoyed playing as more, I’d have to go with Chris. Having access to more weaponry and looking cool taking down foes with my shiny blade made for a good time. The beauty about this game is that different people with different play styles will like each campaign for their own reasons.

Resident Evil 6 is set for an October 2, 2012 release date.

Terry Crews Ties You To A Chair, Makes You Watch ‘The Expendables 2: The Video Game’ Trailer

by MoreLikeAndy

Some of us at Geekscape have already written off The Expendables 2: The Video Game when it was first announced. From the screenshots alone, we passed judgement on Ubisoft for even thinking of publishing this game. With the gameplay trailer released today, the naysayers might just have to eat some crow.

 

The Expendables 2: The Video Game will launch July 31st for $14.99 (or $11.99 if you’re a PS+ member) on PSN since it’s part of the Playstation Play promotion that Sony is running from July 24th to August 27th. XBLA and PC versions will launch August 17th when The Expendables 2 premieres in theaters.

Everybody’s Gaming For The Weekend Of July 6th, 2012!

by MoreLikeAndy

Another week on the East Coast, another hot ass week. Perfect time to stay in the nice cool air-conditioned house and play some of this week’s recommendations.

 

Spelunky (XBLA – 1200 MS Points. Original version free on PC)

Tired of Super Meat Boy or Trials Evolution and want another game to kick you in the balls? Well Spelunky has got you covered this weekend. 2D platforming with rouge-like style is perfect for punishing you while getting caught in the repeating cycle of playing the same level over and over. This ends up being a good thing for Spelunky since there is so much to see that the only way to see everything is to risk exploring the levels and hope you survive long enough to find all the secrets. Just don’t dawdle too long or the ghost will one-hit kill you.

 

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (3DS – $39.99)

Somehow, making a Final Fantasy rhythm game actually works. It helps that the music Square Enix decided to put into Theatrhythm is the original music selected from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy 13 and not some sort of new style remixes that mix it with speed metal. Ugh. With all the action that happens beneath the notes you must press on screen, it’s a shame that you can never take your eyes off the notes long enough to enjoy the visual masterpiece playing out during the song. Curious as to see what characters people put in their teams.

 

McPixel (Pc, Linux, OSX – $9.99)

I could try to explain this game but all you really need is the trailer to see just how insane McPixel is:

Going into this thinking that logic will help you solve the puzzles in the required 20 seconds will be your undoing. Usually the most stupid answer is the right choice.

Mount & Blade Devs Want You To Meet Their ‘Caribbean’ Queen

by MoreLikeAndy

For anyone old enough to remember that song, you’re welcome for getting it stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Snowbird Games, the developers of Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword has announced a naval action-RPG that takes place in the Caribbean, of course. The time period will be during the ‘Golden Era of Piracy’.

Over at Snowbird Games’ site, they go into a little detail explaining that this will mostly be ship-to-ship combat. There will be some out of ship combat, it seems, with Caribbean having players siege towns and ports as well as boarding other ships.

“True ‘Caribbean’ atmosphere of the vast and dangerous world” is one of the bullet points for Caribbean. That better mean either we get the option of naming our ship the ‘Billy Ocean’ or have the crew sing the song while hoisting the sails.

Geekscape Games Geek Peek Review: ‘Spec Ops: The Line’

by MoreLikeAndy

Spec Ops: The Line is suppose to pull on your emotional heart strings with the fact that you are fighting your own kind, the U.S. military. For me, there is a disconnect in what the story of Spec Ops: The Line is trying to tell me and all the killing I am doing. Just by having Nolan North and Christopher “Kid” Reid say to each other “we’re killing our own people!” doesn’t do enough to pull me into the right and wrong situation I think the story is trying to tell. Maybe I have been desensitized by all the war movies and games I’ve played in my life that the story just doesn’t hit home.

It feels like 2K Games focused more time on the sand effects and how they can manipulate the battles more so than the story. Throwing grenades or any other large explosions will cause the sand to swirl up and create a fog that makes it hard for both enemies and your team to see one another. The roaring sounds of the scripted sandstorms in the middle of a firefight added to the craziness of the action. If I was ever in a sandstorm, I think 2K Games got damn close to what it would feel like to be in one.

Feedback on shooting is excellent and the enemy AI at times seems to be pretty smart with cover, though few occasions you will see suicide like tendencies with shotgun and knife wielding enemies as they charge towards your team. Handing off multiplayer duties to Darkside Game Studios was a mistake due to how vastly different the look and feel from the campaign is.From the stiff animations to the cruddy PS2 era textures, it’s anyone’s guess why 2k Games decided to add it in the first place.

Maybe with all the cover-based shooters flooding the market for gamers, developers should draw a line in the sand and start finding a different way to tell moral stories like Spec Ops: The Line tried to.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Quantum Conundrum’

by Molotov Cupcake

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Portal should consider itself properly wood. Quantum Conundrum draws from the illustrious puzzler in many decadent ways, but also manages to stand on its own as a love letter to Kim Swift’s uproariously popular creation. Of course, that makes plenty of sense, as this new first-person puzzler is a project from the Portal lead herself. While it could have easily stood as a supplement to Swift’s outstanding work on Portal, it offers a satisfying and mind-bending journey on its own merit.

You’re Professor Fitz Quadwrangle’s nephew, and your wacky uncle has somehow managed to find himself trapped in the mythical dimension where all of our lost belongings end up. Your car keys? That dimension. The awesome Batman socks you bought and planned on wearing every day? Professor Quadwrangle’s hanging out there with them. But it’s your job to rescue him — with his disembodied voice, of course. And while you don’t have a name or any character development to speak of, you’re instrumental in ensuring the good Professor’s escape.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t exactly made this easy on himself — or anyone, for that matter. See, he spends most of his time tooling around with interdimensional experiments. So “scattered” if you will amongst Quadwrangle Manor are several different incomplete tests and their results, which ultimately ends up in the creation of four alternate dimensions being strewn about the house. In order to rescue your uncle, you’ll need to put your wits to the test (as well as those handy dandy problem solving skills).

Across four very different dimensions, all of which feature alternate rules of physics and other constraints, you’ll pack along Quadwrangle’s invention, the IS device (interdimensional shift device — a glove instead of a Portal gun) and Quadwrangle’s orders to guide you through all four of the varying areas. You’ll need to be quite nimble about switching between each dimension: where one might feature heavier objects, or “fluffy” items that bounce higher than others in the heavier dimension, and while it’s usually quite obvious what needs to be done to complete each puzzle, it’s a toss-up sometimes as to how you need to accomplish it. Where exactly do you need to toss this crate? At which time, precisely, do you need to make your descent into the laser-infested walkway?

It sounds like the stuff of any great platformer, and you’d be right in thinking it quite often relies on those kinds of sensibilities to accomplish much. It never claims to be anything more than a collection of sandbox-styled puzzles loosely connected via Quadwrangle’s dimension-sized dilemma, and the fact that this game never takes itself too seriously provides fuel for players to keep moving forward, even when puzzle solutions aren’t so readily apparent.

Quantum Conundrum infuses a sense of childlike wonder into each of its interdimensional areas, and a fantastic performance by John de Lancie (whom you might recognize from Star Trek) as Professor Quadwrangle spice it up in ways that elevate this puzzler beyond that of mere “indie” status and into an area that doesn’t quite touch Portal’s status as a cult icon, but into the stratosphere of praise you likely thought it’d end up. It’s just a shame it ends so abruptly. Might we be seeing another of these types of games from Swift in the future? We hope so — especially if the same kind of quirky humor is present in any future endeavors. We all know that’s what we came for, anyway.

DCS: P-51D Mustang: The Crysis of Flight Sims Announces New Iteration

by Shane O'Hare

The spiritual successor to Microsoft Combat Simulator and IL2, Digital Combat Simulator continues to impress. Check out the GORGEOUS trailer below.

Featuring two modes, first an “Easy-To-Play” mode that lets anyone jump and and start flying, think arcade mode. Second a full simulation mode, they claim it “is the most authentic simulation of the P-51D Mustang that has ever been done for the PC”

My personal favorite part, besides the fucking graphics, is the 32 player multiplayer. That will be ballistically fun.

If they can pull off proper damage models and have realistic physics, this is a no-brainer for any flight enthusiast .

You can pre-purchase the game HERE and get early beta access as well.

Doom 3 BFG Edition Releases October 16!

by Shane O'Hare

You thought it was over? It can’t be over! Doom 3 was just the warm up fight! Return to Doom 3 October 16th!

Bethesda is releasing a re-tuned and refined edition of Doom 3. Notable improvements include: The Resurrection of Evil DLC, Seven new levels titled “The Lost Missions”, Tighter controls, New checkpoint system that allows for more fluid gameplay, enhanced graphics and visuals optimized for 3D on PS3 and XBOX.

The most important addition. The one that I think all fans of Doom and Doom 3 will LOVE.

ARMOR MOUNTED FLASHLIGHT!

Now you can light the darkness and shoot AT THE SAME TIME! If you are a player of the original Doom 3 then you should be jumping for joy right now. The most downloaded mod for the first released Doom was the Duct Tape Mod that let you use the flashlight and the gun at the same time.

Doom 3 BFG also includes Doom 1 and Doom 2. It hits store shelves October 16th.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Resonance’

by MoreLikeAndy

With the success of Telltale Games has had with The Walking Dead game, a lot of people could point at the demise of the traditional way point and click adventure games are made. Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games would like to point out with their latest game, Resonance, there is still some life left in the traditional ways.

Point and click adventure games are all about the story. The better it is, the more you want to continue to the end to see the story through. Resonance does an amazing job with the sci-fi/conspiracy theory story in that if this was fleshed out more and put out as a book, it would have done very well for itself. Since I don’t want to ruin the story, thus the game itself, I will be as brief as possible. Resonance’s story revolves around a breakthrough a scientist and his research assistant on a project they are both working on. What follows is a series of events that eventually brings 4 people together to solve all the mystery behind “Resonance.”

The way Xii Games introduces you to the 4 main characters is stunning. After the opening scene, you get a grid of 4 different panels with different pictures that all have timepieces in them. All of the timepieces have different times on them. You have the option of choosing any 1 of the 3 panels since one of them is the opening scene. Once all the panels are completed, I was delighted to see why Xii Games put that grid panel in the beginning. Delaying the title screen for your game is always a pleasure to see if done right.

Of course with a good story and presentation, you need some good voice actors to make the words and the world around those words come alive. All of the voice work was pretty good. There were times when the audio seemed to spike yet it happens very little that some might not even notice it. Anyone who has played Bastion will immediately notice Detective Winston Bennet. He is voiced by the “Narrator” himself, Logan Cunningham. Thankfully, the lines in the story that the Detective has seem a perfect fit for Logan.

At first glance, you would think that you could treat Resonance like any other old-school point and click adventure game. You will find out very quickly how wrong you are. Putting a twist on the formula, Resonance has a Long Term Memory (LTM) and Short Term Memory (STM). LTM is a consistent summary of the story as the player makes it through the story. I look at it as a log file of what I have done already and to help me remember important things that may or may not help me solve puzzles. STM is more limited in you can only have up to 5 things in your STM. These things can be anything you can interact with from any location. Anything you add after the 5th thing to your STM, the last thing added before that will drop off.

So what does this all mean? It means these memories will be essential to solving a lot of the puzzles you will encounter in Resonance. Clicking on everything to brute force the solution to the puzzle will not serve you well this time around. Using LTM and STM along the traditional point and click adventure tropes was a little daunting at first. There were a couple of puzzles that took me 30 minutes to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. My conditioning to the old methods of point and click adventure games made me have a lapse in memory, thus forgetting that STM’s and LTM’s could be used as items and presented to other characters during the conversations trees. It will take a little to get used to so don’t worry too much at the beginning when you start learning the new mechanics Resonance throws your way.

The UI was one sticking point I had issues with Resonance. Having to click and hold while dragging items out of my inventory to use was very annoying. It made me feel like I had to work harder than anyone should using inventory items in point and click adventure game. Switching between characters also felt slow and cumbersome. The process during certain moments in the game was a lesson in patience for me. At the risk of being nit-picky, I wish there was more screen resolution sizes. Maxing out at 1280×920 made Resonance look a little hazy on my 24 inch monitor. Setting the game to run in window mode fixed the hazy problem but introduced new problems of me clicking off the screen and onto my desktop. Making these changes has to be done outside the game since that is the limitation of the engine Resonance is running on which is not that big of a deal for most people. So don’t be frightened when you don’t see an options choice in the main menu.

While other companies try to reinvent the point and click genre by making it more action oriented, some of the charm that makes a point and click game can be lost. With what Xii Games and Wadjet Eye Games did with Resonance, it shows you that there is still innovation left in the traditional way of making point and click adventure games. With only a few minor issues, the story, writing and interesting new mechanics make Resonance worth playing for anyone looking for a great adventure game.

Ubisoft Following the Footsteps of Naughty Dog With Use of Motion Capture, Voice Acting

by MoreLikeAndy

Naughty Dog nailed it on the head with their Uncharted series with how well the reactions to what the characters are doing on screen matched up. When making video games, the voice acting is done separate from the motion capture. This can create that disconnect from what the character on screen is doing and how the voice actor reacts to it. Having someone do the voice acting and motion capture at the same time is a huge undertaking and why most studios don’t do it.

With Far Cry 3, Ubisoft seems to get the definition of insanity and is doing things differently by using the same actors for both voice and motion capture. The folks over at CVG did an interview with the actor who plays Vaas, who seems to be the main villain in Far Cry 3. I was hoping for someone that was crazed out of their mind but Michael Mando seems like a genuinely sweet guy. I like that Ubisoft wanted Mando to go even further and over the top with the character Vaas. Everyone loves an on the edge psychotic bad guy. Can’t wait to get my hands on Far Cry 3 on September 4th, 2012.

Ys Origin Releases On Steam May 31st, First Time Available With English Translation

by MoreLikeAndy

XSEED announced today that the prequel to the popular Ys series, Ys Origin will be coming to Steam on May 31st. At the price point of $19.99, this is a perfect time to get acquainted with what everyone in Japan got to play back in 2006.

Besides having the game translated in English for the first time, being on Steam will have the usual achievements and cloud support. For those who prefer to use a controller instead of mouse and keyboard, you heathens, you will have that option as well.

If you are not familiar with anything Ys, check out http://www.worldofys.com/yso/ to get caught up.

 

Plentiful News From CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Spring Conference

by MoreLikeAndy

CD Projekt RED announced some great things at today’s Spring Conference about The Witcher series that was streamed live on Ustream for all to watch. Besides showing off gameplay from the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition which comes out on April 17th, here are some highlights from the conference.

iOS users will get an interactive motion comic starring the witcher himself, Geralt. It will be released free for both iPhone and iPad on April 17th. Another thing for the Apple crowd is you can now buy and play The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on your Mac through Steam. As with other PC games getting a Mac version on Steam, if you own a copy of The Witcher on Steam for PC already, you get the Mac version for free. If you’re not a person that has PC and Mac in the same household, you can pay the $9.99 for it now on Steam.

We all know how backing up your data is important and CD Projekt Red and GOG.com seems to agree with offering a free back-up digital copy of The Witcher 2 to anyone who purchases the game. No matter where you bought it from or when. On April 17th, point your web browser of choice to http://www.gog.com/en/page/witcherbackup and sign into your account to have your back-up copy waiting.

PC gamers that already have The Witcher 2 will get access to the “Enhanced Edition” update on April 17th with preloading the update starting April 11th.

The biggest thing to come out of CD Projekt RED’s conference was their crazy campaign that will give out 1000 copies of The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 to “enthusiast” reviewers. Simply go to http://thewitcher.com/review and fill out the form. CD Projekt RED will contact you a few days later. It’s that easy. Everyone thinks they can write better reviews than the paid professionals. Now’s your time to prove it.

Not to be left out of all the fun, GOG.com had some news to drop as well. From the developers of Machiarium comes a new title, Botanicula.

Botanicula will release on April 19th for $9.99

GOG.com will also start offering “Premium Edition” games with some newer titles to arrive on their site starting with Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut and Heroes of Might & Magic V Bundle that includes both expansion packs. Just like the older games on GOG.com, you will get a ton of stuff with the Premium Edition games from official art books to soundtracks and more.

Finally, the reason why GOG.com is probably loading slow for everyone. For the next 48 hours, you can get Fallout for free. If you ever wanted to see how the series got its start, go get your free copy now.

Game of Thrones RPG announced from Atlus.

by Shane O'Hare

The insanely popular book and now TV series, Game of Thrones, has branched out to another media. Games!

It’s obvious that the RPG Powerhouse, Atlus, really put their entire effort into this game. It looks AMAZING, with good voice acting and an original story written under the direct supervision of George R. R. Martin I do not feel that this game will disappoint.

Game hits stores May 15th. Thats for Xbox, PS3 and PC (STEAM).

Check out the official site for the game here.

 

GOG.com Spring Announcements: Witcher II: Assassins of Kings Edition , Trine, Legend of Grimrock AND MORE!

by Shane O'Hare

The fabulous folks over at GOG (Good Old Games) have released a STAGGERING amount of news today regarding their deal with CD Projekt RED and their spring lineup.

Two weeks before the release of Witcher II: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, GOG and CD Projekt Red, the Polish developer of the Witcher series, wll stream a live event. The official press release says:

“Just two weeks before we launch Enhanced Edition on Xbox 360 and PC,
and we’re doing something that is truly extraordinary. I don’t think
anyone’s ever done something like this for their gamers. We have
prepared pretty big surprises for gamers of all kinds, and we think
that you will enjoy them a lot. If games are your passion, watch our
conference,” said Marcin Iwinski, Joint CEO of CD Projekt RED S.A.

Witcher II: Assassins of Kings is slated to ship internationally on May 17th. So make sure to check out GOG.com two weeks prior for the live stream.

If you are unfamiliar with GOG, let me bring you up to speed. They are a revolutionary group of lads and lasses that offer DRM-FREE digital distribution of games. They’re know for offering games that have been long out of print. It’s the only place to get a copy of my favorite PC FPS of all time, SHOGO.

Starting with Witcher II and Legend of Grimrock (GOG is the only digital distrubution service offering preorders of Legend of Grimrock, and they are putting a 20% discount on top of that.) they will start moving out of the “Classic Game” market and begin offering DRM-FREE new releases! Along with the new stuff, you can get copies of Trine and The Whispered World as well.

So what does this mean for us PC gamers? Well GOG has always been a nuisance to their competitors but never really offered anything for the likes of STEAM, ORiGIN or Direct2Drive to really be worried about. Now though, with the advent of true DRM-FREE release day available games, it is really putting GOG up there in the same boat as STEAM. We’ve all been there, internet goes down, moving or leaving on a jet plane and no access to the Steamcloud and all those games out of reach, hopefully this push by GOG will make STEAM and the others to offer a bit of change.

Geekscape Games Reviews Defenders of Ardania

by Josh Jackson

Real time strategy games have traditionally had a hard time finding an audience on consoles. Let’s face it, a keyboard and mouse are usually going to be best for the fast paced map management that the genre requires. But after starting up Defenders of Ardania, I felt that those who’s Windows 95 PC’s couldn’t run any recent titles, this Xbox 360 version might be what can get a new audience’s foot in the door. Or at least it could have been, but it never does much to hold your attention for long.

It takes awhile before things become this exciting.

Blending elements of RTS games with traditional tower defense, Defenders of Ardania makes you into a king who must manage territory, troops and resources to continuously build defenses against the evil threatening to destroy your castle. Focusing on both defense and offense, the key to victory is to strategically place towers that can attack incoming enemies while blocking their path towards your castle. At the same time, you’ll try to send in your various units ranging from standard infantry, defensive damage sponges and warriors that can attack enemies that they cross paths. Both sides gain resources by selling towers and destroying enemies, so the more pain you bring to your foes, the more you have to work with. Whoever destroys the opponent’s castle first wins, except for certain chapters in the extensive campaign where additional objectives will be added on… assuming you know what they are. There was more than one occaision where I destroyed the enemy castle, only for a last second objective to be tacked on with little explaination, (aside from a blink and you’ll miss it box of text.) Two minutes later, I somehow lost and had to redo the whole 30 minute stage over again. There’s nothing more exciting than having to redo a whole stage for reasons you don’t understand!

The single player campaign does a good job of getting you acquainted with the game’s fundamentals, but it moves way too slow for my tastes. After about four missions in, (about two hours later,) the laughably bad narrator, (sounding like a really awful Sean Connery impersonator,) loosens up the leesh and leaves you to your own devices for the most part. But even as new abilities such as magic become unlocked, more offensive techniques open up and more units are introduced, the game pretty much boils down to whoever spams out the most units with the best tower placement wins. The majority of the maps are so small, there’s really not a lot of improvisation that can be brought in anyway, so it’s not like you have much choice. And by the way, it doesn’t help that the console controls are needlessly confusing, (why do I have to build towers with A, but I send out units with X?) Playing online adds more strategy since you’ll have real people who can either help or hinder your progress in its Vs. and Survival modes, but it still doesn’t alieviate the fundimental flaw with the game… that it’s just not that fun to play.

Press X to win.

So is Defenders of Ardania a lost cause? Not completely, since I do feel that it’s early stages are a great introduction for those new to strategy games as far as the basics and its visuals are pretty damn good. But long before the story is finished, newbies will get bored and want something more in depth while RTS vets are likely to scoff at how limited this game is compared to some of the greats. And at 1200 Microsoft Points, ($15 for those outside of Xbox land,) it’s a pretty steep price for a game with only a handful of functions. My advice? Try the demo and get the hang of the mechanics, because the full game doesn’t change much, then move on to a deeper console experience like Halo Wars. I hear it’s pretty cheap right now. But as far as this game goes, it’s far to limited to justify a purchase, and there’s not much anyone can do to defend it.

Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, (Also on PC, PSN)

Price: 1200 MSP, ($15)

Battlefield 3 Expansion Packs Announced: Close Quarters , Armored Kill and End Game

by Shane O'Hare

It was recently announced that the hit DICE game Battlefield 3 will be getting 3 new expansion packs this year.

June debuts Close Quarters which includes 10 new weapons that focuses on smaller maps and infantry battles.

This Fall Armored Kill releases. DICE says this expansion pack is all about the vehicles and will feature the BIGGEST map the developer has ever made.

This Winter will feature End Game. No information was given from the developer but a vigilant Redditor started investigating and put 2 and 2 together.

Hopefully by Christmas, the Battlefield will be riddled with Raptors. Remember, stay out of the tall grass!

A Q & A with Lead Director Alex Thomas of Stoic Studio About “The Banner Saga”

by MoreLikeAndy

With stunning art style that looks like it’s straight out of a animated film, The Banner Saga looks to be a must play RPG for everyone. Of course the story is going to be great when you have the triple threat of Alex Thomas, Arnie Jorgensen and John Watson who before forming Stoic, worked on Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Having some questions on my mind, Alex Thomas was so kind enough to indulge me in answering them.

How much influence from working with Bioware on The Old Republic and each other has carried over to your new company, Stoic?

Hmm, I’m not sure if influence has been as important as experience. Our gameplay is very different from The Old Republic in both combat and exploration. Though I love the scope of what BioWare achieves with their dialogue we’ve taken a slightly different approach to it. I would say it’s more similar to The Witcher in that our goal is to give the players choices in conversation when it’s really important and when it affects the development of the story. That said, the experience we’ve all gained from working at BioWare is immeasurable. John, who is creating all the tech for The Banner Saga, was the lead combat programmer on SW:TOR. Arnie’s experience as the lead concept artist translates perfectly into making a 2D game where his artwork becomes the actual game. My time on design and cinematics gave me a lot of experience on just how to make dialogue that branches, and once you know how it works you realize it’s nowhere as easy as you’d think. In terms of successfully developing a game we absolutely owe this to all our previous development experience.

Why Vikings?

It’s interesting that we’ve gotten this question as much as we have, it was a pretty easy decision for us. We really love the visual themes, history and mood of their culture and (pre-Skyrim) it was rare to see them in games, especially the role-playing variety. We knew we wanted a fantasy setting but desperately wanted to avoid from the very overdone “elves, dwarves and orcs” dynamic. It’s also worth mentioning that one us is named “Jorgensen”.

The name, The Banner Saga, immediately has my mind thinking about Game of Thrones. Does that series have any influence on your game, The Banner Saga?

Who doesn’t like Game of Thrones? One of the biggest inspirations from that series is when you say it’s a mature story you understand it’s about political intrigue and the relationships between the characters, not sex, swearing and violence. It’s also not about high fantasy and dragons and magic, and it’s not about black and white, good versus evil. It really is a story written for thoughtful adults, and that’s refreshing. We’re desperately avoiding swiping any of their fantastic story, but that’s definitely the tone we’re trying to hit with The Banner Saga. I’m glad it came across!

This could have very well been a 2D action game with how the beautiful the art design of the games looks. How did you decide on making it an turn-based RPG?

There were several reasons for this but two very prominently; firstly, we love the genre. Not to namedrop, but I’ve been a fan of almost every TBS to come out on the market since I was a kid- Tactics Ogre, Shining Force, X-COM, Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Jagged Alliance. That’s not to say we’re going to be just like all those games, but I love them all. I think we’ve actually come up with a pretty unique strategy system that people may not have seen before. I’m excited to start talking about more about that in the near future.

To a lesser degree, a turn-based game is more within the scope of what a small team can create, at least with the breadth of content that we’re going for. One of the interesting side effects that we’re noticing is by saying we’re from BioWare and showing things like branching dialogue, people are starting to look at our product like it’s going to be made by 200 employees. Instead, we’re making it as smartly as we can, and going for innovation in each system, and turn-based combat was a big part of that.

I see that you have “free multiplayer combat coming soon” listed on The Banner Saga’s info page. Can you explain a little about what players can expect from multiplayer?

As we were developing our first release we felt like the combat was really fun and couldn’t really think of a great reason not to release it as a standalone. If you don’t have marketing dollars you’ve got to make your game available in some way as soon as possible and let people talk about it. So basically we’ve taken our turn-based combat, broken it out of the full game and will be making it free to play on PC and Mac, while we continue to develop the first part of our single player campaign. In this release we’ll have all the classes we’ve currently developed available to play and upgrade over time. We’ve added a narrative story you can progress through if players just want to play against the computer and we’ll be featuring multiplayer matches for people who want to try it competitively. As we continue to work on the single player game we’ll release new content to the multiplayer standalone. We’ve also got big plans for future crossover between our multiplayer and single-player releases, as they both persist in the same world.

How many people are working on The Banner Saga or is it just the three of you?

At this time it’s just the three of us. We are literally an independent studio paying for production out of our own pocket. We’ll be putting up a Kickstarter campaign soon and depending on how that does we’ll start looking into creating more content and expanding the scope of the game.

With Kickstarter being in the spotlight recently with Double Fine’s new game, do you think this will help bring more attention to smaller studios wanting to put their ideas into reality?

I can’t say for sure what the success of Double Fine’s product means for everyone else but I’m thrilled about the chance that it’ll give indie development a boost. Already I’ve seen a handful of really great projects get amazing funding since then, which is seriously encouraging. This might sound pretty obvious but an expanding indie market can only mean better things for both big and small studios, not to mention gamers. Everybody wins.

 

More info from Stoic Studio will be released later this week with the Kickstarter page being published. For now, head on over to www.StoicStudio.com to read more about The Banner Saga.

Geekscape Games Reviews Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass

by MoreLikeAndy

A point and click adventure game about wrestling? Why the hell not!?!

Wadjet Eye Games and Icebox Studios have decided that their latest game, Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass can provide a necessary can of whoop ass to the genre and to that I say “HELL YEAH!”

With any PC point and click adventure game, the right mix of story, puzzles and atmosphere of the setting of the game is what separates the decent ones from the really great ones. Da New Guys starts off with a great opening. From the main menu’s music having a similar sound as Eye of the Tiger to the very first puzzle, you get a sense that you are in for one hell of a good time. After a brief opening puzzle, you learn that your teammate, Brain, has been kidnapped while trying to escape an angry mob of wrestlers at your apartment calling your win of the title belt a sham. They demand that Brain should give it up to one of them. Playing as the other two teammates, The Defender (he gets upset when you don’t add the The when saying his name) and Simon, you must figure out who would want to kidnap Brain and rescue him.

The first half of Da New Guys suffers from a lack of engagement when you’re stuck just going back and forth between the same areas ad nauseum. I was quite frustrated by how many times I had to travel to one area to get or do a specific thing, only to have to travel back to my previous area to do another so many times in a row. Repeated actions without changing up the routine just a little is a good way to make someone bored with your game.

I also never found the puzzles too hard but there are some that need a little more thought to grasp the answers to. Try not to over think most of the puzzles. You would be surprised at how simple the solution usually is. I am trained for the crazy solutions due to games like the Monkey Island games and Maniac Mansion so it was hard for me to think “simple” enough when presented with a puzzle. Some may see an issue with simple solutions in a point and click adventure and that is understandable. I was okay with the simplistic nature of some of the puzzles. It let me enjoy the story more.

I do have to say that I was ready to give up on Da New Guys after the halfway point. Issues with the pacing, compiled with the dull voice acting, which at times sounded like either the mixing was bad or the voice actors were too close to the mics, had my mouse hovering over the “quit” button. Then something amazing happened that I never would had expected in a point and click adventure game: a top down point of view stealth mission! Okay, I know that doesn’t sound like something that should be mind-blowing but to me it was. Between the top down view stealth and puzzle solving, this was a great change of pace for the point and click adventure genre. Da New Guys even throws in a crazy car chase scene and let’s the player interact in a really inventive way that I’ve never seen yet. I don’t want to ruin it but it involves guns. Good on you Icebox Studios!

Little things like the voice acting, some of the character designs not fitting right with certain things, a slow beginning to the game and not being able to change the resolution hurts Da New Guys a little and may be hard for people to want to give it a shot. If you can manage to stick it out past the first half of the game, I promise Da New Guys will be a treat for anyone who likes point and click adventure games and wants something new in the genre that is a refreshing treat.

Battlefield 3 Patch Updates: Weapons, Vehicles and Map Changes

by Shane O'Hare

Today on the Battlelog Blog Community Manager zh1nt0 posted the entire patch notes.

Some notable fixes are:

-Players should no longer take fall damage from short falls.

-Unguided tank rounds and RPGs will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.

-AA Missiles are more difficult to dodge in Jets, this was unintended behavior that created an imbalance against skilled pilots.

-The F35 will now only attempt to enter Hover at low altitudes, though it will maintain the hover until forward flight is resumed, even if it reaches high altitude.

-The Horizontal Sway reduction has been changed from a global percent reduction to a weapon specific value reduction

-The Hip Accuracy bonus provided by the Laser Sight has been increased. Some PDWs have had their crouch and prone base stats adjusted to prevent hip firing being more accurate than aimed fire when using a laser sight.

-The MAV can no longer be used as an elevator.

Also, possibly the most important patch from the entire changelog

-Added Horns to all Jeeps.

Thats right…HORNS ARE BACK BABY!

There is not a release date for this patch yet, they are tweaking the whole stack for all three platforms