Tag Archives: Exclusives

God of War: Ascension Has At Least One Multiplayer Mode. It’s Worth A Look, I Say…

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For me and many other gamers, adding multiplayer modes to a game that’s best known for its solo play and cinematic storytelling is the sign of the beast, a franchise running on fumes begging for cash from a crowd focused on massing up kill counts with no regard to narrative structure or hell, enjoyment of all the hard work it takes to make a story driven game flow from start to finish. Sony Santa Monica Studios obviously realizes this as well as a few other negatives and positives about MP and is forging ahead with an intriguing multiplayer mode in Kratos’ next adventure.

From what I’m reading elsewhere, you won’t have twenty Kratos’ running around the screen at all. One aspect of the mode will feature players representing warriors selected by the gods to do battle over territory, so at least my first fear has been quelled. As for the rest, well, I’ll need to see the game up close and personal to judge more fully what’s coming. All I’ll say is I’m looking forward to the single player story FIRST and foremost over any multplayer modes, no matter how good they are. Color me cautiously optimistic…

Datura: SCEA and Plastic Group Want You To Get Move-ing.

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While I’m really loving what I see here and want the game to do fantastically well over PSN, I really wish that SCEA would get this game plus Plastic’s great Linger In Shadows along with some other PSN-only titles (even demo versions would be fine) onto a retail disc at a nice price so that the rather large amount of PS3 owners who still can’t (or don’t yet) use PSN can get to experience what they’re missing. As I keep saying, shutting out any gaming dollars by enforcing evolution before everyone can come along for the ride just makes you less profit if you expect everyone to be aboard at the same time. Hell, the Move needs more positive support, right? I’m keeping the flame going for Sorcery, which looks amazing from what I’ve seen, but I want Sony to acknowledge that as successful as PSN is, it (and any other download content service) isn’t doing much for those gamers who may want to try some of these titles but currently don’t have a decent online connection.

Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time: The PSP Is Going Out Fighting, That’s For Sure…

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Atlus is one of those smart publishers keeping the PSP alive and kicking and PACKED with stellar import RPG/SRPG experiences like this one. I’m not a huge anime fan, but I’ve always loved Satoshi Urushihara’s lovely game artwork since the Langrisser and Assault Suits Valken days (two more favorite games of mine). Anyway, GWoT is set for a “Summer 2012” release, so I say start saving up those pennies if you still have a PSP around the house and want a pretty cool strategy game experience that packs a hefty amount of content and challenge.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: It’ll Be A Super Smash, Brother!

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Hmmm. I guess you can file this one under “OK, now I’ve seen everything (again)”. Yes, it’s a blatant Super Smash Bros. clone with a ton of popular Sony franchise characters and maps in place of Mario and company (in lovely HD, unlike Nintendo’s mega-hit). And yes, it’ll probably be the same addictive and competitive party game fun, provided you’re not some fanboy rolling on the ground laughing ’til you pee yourself and drown in it or get so pissed off that you can’t see straight (and that usually misspelled weekly online rant/petition you’re re-drafting to Sony instead of Nintendo or whatever other game company you hated last week is actually spelled correctly because of it). I say deal with it by playing or not playing the game and move on. If it’s fun, it’ll be fun. If it stinks, well, see you at the discount bin. One big saving grace here is Sony can one-up Nintendo by making a Vita version that’s either a standalone experience with online multiplayer (good!) or connects with the PS3 version in some way (better!).

My take? Well, I’m not sure I completely approve of SCEA trying to be “family hip” and “fan hip” in the same product (it always turns out forced and stale when game companies do this wrong), but I really need to pipe down and HOPE someone at SCEA’s PR division doesn’t forget to invite me to another press event so I can play this upcoming game. C’mon guys, Help me do my job here!

Gallery: Wii Library (A Work Back In Progress!)

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I’ve actually owned and played a LOT more than I’ve kept in this photo, but I’m in the process of adding a few more games through trades and tracking down some dirt cheap titles in a few clearance bins. I actually have a few more games on the way thanks to a small trade I made recently, but I wanted to post this picture up now. I guess, I’ll update a few months from now when I have more interesting games to show.

That said, sometimes, it makes me want to (gently) sling an untethered Wii Remote at the heads of those who say the system ONLY has “kiddie” or family games or worse, slam the console without having played a single game on it because they just don’t see how motion control would work on a favorite genre. While, yes, there are a lot of not so hot games on the system, you can absolutely say that about any console from any generation. As far as the Wii (or any other system) goes, when you have a developer who gets what can be done, it works – when you have one that doesn’t quite get it right, it doesn’t. Of course, even a “bad” game can be enjoyable if you’re in the right frame of mind…

Sorcery Story Trailer: I Did Say It Takes Time To Make A Good Game, Didn’t I?

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When Sorcery dropped off the radar for a bit too long, I initially thought it was canned or worse, being changed around into a standard Dual Shock game. However, it looks as if the game just went into the shop for some nice tuning and based on this gorgeous trailer, it’s going to be worth dusting off that Move wand and Navigation controller for. I’m also betting it’s going to be a lot more intuitive than Kinect Star Wars (sorry, Terminal Reality! I love you guys, but…). Anyway, I’m psyched for this just because I won’t mind flailing away at my TV for once and at least the 1:1 controls the Move brings to the table means a lot less actual flailing. Nice…

Tanks A Lot, Capcom! Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Pre-Order Campaign Rolls Out

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No, you’re still not getting a big honkin’ 40+ button controller, so quit griping. Of course, getting ALL three bonuses in one shot is a no-go unless you want three copies of the game or have your fingers crossed that they get released as free or paid DLC at some point, so three’s always that to complain about if you’re so inclined. Hey, it’s not ALL Capcom’s fault, kids – that’s just the way thing go in this day and age of every retailer wanting exclusive content and your gaming dollar.

 

 

That said, I keep wondering how much longer the industry can keep this up, given the backlash against other things that are a lot less annoying to those of us who want games to ship with as much content as possible, Granted, if you ask around, you’ll hear most people IN the industry saying “this is how it is” or something like that. However, it’s looking as if this enforced means of content division can backfire if enough gamers put their foot down and start screaming as loudly as possible. As for me, I’ll be playing the game with no bonuses because I think it’ll be fine without them.

 

Akai Katana: Rising Star’s Retail Hope For Core Shmup Fans

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Yeah, yeah yeah, the arcade shooter genre doesn’t do well at retail, everyone plays on emulators and blah, and blah, and blah. But I happen to LIKE packaged games, crazed game historian wannabe that I am. Anyway, Rising Star Games is here to save the day with Akai Katana on the Xbox 360. While this Cave shooter won’t win any awards as the prettiest gal at the party, the intense shooter action is there in all its “bullet hell” glory and like many classics in the genre, it’s all about the replay value over merely blowing through the game once and that’s that.

By the way, Rising Star also has a few fun plans for the Nintendo DS/DSi and 3DS in terms of some cool casual titles, but I’ll save those for a new post shortly.

“GameStop New”… You’re Still At it, Huh?

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Yeah, yeah, if I don’t like it, I don’t have to shop there. On the other hand, ignoring a problem (no matter how “trivial”) never makes it disappear. That and hell, sometimes it’s hard to pass up a great deal like this. Still, NEW to me when it comes to a product like a game, movie, lip balm or candy bar means SEALED. The location I got this at had something like four or five copies of Metroid: Other M mixed in with the used games, all opened but listed as NEW. And this wasn’t the only “new” title that was opened up and stuck in the stacks. Again, if I’m giving a gift to someone, I’ll have to make sure I get it from someplace that doesn’t have this rather stupid policy.  If you have mockup cases for upcoming games taking up space on the racks, you can so the same for older games like this, sell them still sealed and not need to deal with any complaints from me or anyone else who hates this opened as new scheme.

Oh, and it’s not as if there wasn’t any space in the shop behind the counter either. The location, which has previously been a pretty messy place to pop into, has cleaned things up tremendously since I last shopped there. While I understand the practice is supposed to discourage theft or whatever, it’s pretty annoying to have to accept something that would be unacceptable in certain other retail situations. And hey! The game isn’t that bad as far as I’ve played. Sure, Samus is a bit whiny, but hell, who has the EXACT same personality their entire life? OK, Romney springs to mid straight off the bat… but he’s a Weyland-Yutani creation, I just know it…

Sometimes, Overthinking Isn’t Good For Gaming. On The Other Hand…

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Hmmm….

So, Xenoblade Chronicles’ main character can see into the future AND the game allows players to advance or dial back the game clock at will (well, outside of combat) in order to make some quest solving easier and battle different monsters at different times of the day.

That’s fantastic, but there’s a problem here. Somehow, Monolith Soft didn’t blend these two points together so that the time winding actually affected the story at all (even though it should). This bugs me quite a bit, as the game is indeed excellent. However, by not using the time element in a better fashion, it just makes for a clumsy gimmick that’s only used to save time in finding wandering NPC’s or monsters. Oops.