With Dragon’s Dogma a mere few weeks away from going gold, here’s a look at some cool “making of” videos that spell out what it takes to bring the game to life on your PS3 or Xbox 360. IT certainly looks as if anyone expecting to have an easy go at it will be in for a royal surprise when they find out that these beasties in the game all bite back hard. As to all the “better than Skyrim” stuff I’m reading about from the usual suspects, I just snicker and smile, as that’s a totally different beast, particularly if you’re a PC gamer with a solid rig and some of the better mods for that game. Still, Capcom does have the makings of a hardcore hit here with their baby…
OK, this made me crack up quite a bit, as I can see some unsuspecting non-gamers strolling through Covent Garden, coming across this bizarre live advertisement for Radical Entertainment’s sequel and wondering what the hell is going on. Well, it’s certainly an attention grabber, that’s for sure. The game should be rolling into stores all over the place at some point today, but here in the US, we’ll just have to settle for bigger-budgeted live action and CG TV commercials and no faux real-life rumbles in a big case in a public place. Here in NYC, this would just be performance art, anyway…
Despite all the money raked in over the past few years by certain well-known multimillion selling franchises, I see the military shooter genre as a bloated, rotting corpse with limited appeal outside of whatever multiplayer shenanigans keep the masses bunny-hopping and camping online endlessly. Granted, there have been many great advances in MP that have kept things fresh and exciting for fans, but those of us who crave deeper single player experiences have been, save for a few bright spots, left out in the cold. Granted, the story modes in the last few shooters I’ve played have been decent and well-written overall and I don’t give a hoot about how long a campaign is as long as it’s memorable. Thankfully, 505 Games and 2K Games are coming to the rescue with two fine titles that take the shooter into two different and very intriguing directions. And neither of them is a FPS…
Oh, I’m SUCH a card, aren’t I? Anyway, here are the first two of four parts from this prequel story that sets up some of the behind the scenes story for you. I’m kind of hoping all four parts will be on the game disc, but if not, it’s not a huge deal. Or deal-breaker, for that matter. I’m just excited that development on Dragon’s Dogma is probably all done and the game is getting ready to roll into retail in the next few months…
OK, now you know why I HATE all this rumors, leaks and speculation nonsense, folks. This crap is trifling to an extreme to keep track of for someone who just wants to play as many games as possible, grrr. BUT, I’ll try to play along for once and see what happens Ready? GO!
Sooo, there’s a new God of War game on the way. God of War Ascension, to be precise. Amazon “leaked” this info after SCEA’s teaser campaign on Facebook last week and before SCEA could officially announce it later today. OR: I hope that teaser didn’t cost a dime’s worth of time and effort to put together. OR perhaps this “leak” wasn’t really a “leak” at all, as a few hours of scooping up as much space on the internet after the Halo 4 shenanigans yesterday on Conan plus the news of that game’s launch date:
Er, Ha ha? Um, OK. November 6, in case you don’t watch Conan or pay attention to the Internet. 343 Studios is obviously doing it up quite well, so fans needn’t worry while non-fans won’t care a bit. Maybe. Back to that new God of War for a sec. It’s really NO big surprise at all to me. Like Sony’s NOT going to have a new game coming with Kratos in it for one more go on the PS3? The only surprise is half the earth not exploding from all the semi-orgasmic fanboy hooting taking place on the internet. We’ll see if SCEA’s PR department even wants to talk to me after this post, I guess. Hey, I like the series, guys – I’m just poking fun, you know. Tough love and all…
I guess we’ll see what’s what when E3 hits. Sony is proving the PS3 isn’t going out with anything resembling a whimper. Or going out at ALL this year or next.
Here’s a nicely done viral for Grasshopper Manufacture’s upcoming game, Lollipop Chainsaw, set to hit stores in June for the PS3 and Xbox 360. As I noted earlier, you’ll want to stick this one (the game, not the video!) on your wish lists, as it’s definitely shaping up to be quite a cool slice of action and non-stop fun with a killer 80’s soundtrack…
(shakes fist at monitor)… Blast you, Bethesdaaaaaaa! Showing off such an awesome game to us yesterday here in NYC, slapping us with an embargo until next week THEN unloading this spectacular trailer on the masses! Grrrr! Anyway (very fake rant over and done with), Dishonored is going to be a game that gets talked about quite a lot, especially as it’s definitely one of the more intriguing games I’ve seen this year that’s NOT a sequel or reboot of an older IP. Arkane Studios’ hard work blew me away and I hope it will do the same to you once more news gets out about how amazing it is.
April 24 here in the US, according to Capcom’s PR department. April 25 in Europe. Now, you can finally get your hands on this hard as nails action/RPG and see what’s what with all those big monsters attempting to eat you alive or poke you full of holes and whatever. As I see from the press release, it’s a two-part demo, so I’ll stick my neck out here and assume it’s the one with that Griffin boss battle which is awesomely hard as hell thanks to a confined space and a boss that’s cheap as all get out. If indeed it IS the same demo, a tip for you: pay attention to his attacks and make sure you deal as much damage as possible in a short time, as dragging the fight out too long is a bad idea. Or it WAS a bad idea for me when I tried the game last year at NY Comic Con…
…then it indeed more than justifies the cost of making this excellent short film. Like a few other big 2011 and 2012 titles, publishers are going all out with the CG and live-action advertising and not simply showing off actual gameplay, which sometimes backfires when the ad is better than the actual game. Fortunately, Prototype 2 is managing to be even better than the original, based what I got to see and play last year (at NY Comic-Con), so fans of the first game needn’t be concerned at all about this sequel. Activision and Radical Entertainment are on the right track for the most part, so prepare to strap yourself in for a wild ride. Say, that April 24 release date is coming up fast, isn’t it?
Over the past few years, Grasshopper Manufacture’s creative genius Goichi Suda (or Suda 51) and some of his games have been called “insane”, “crazy” and “weird” (among other things) by journalists who cover his work (and who very much need new thesauruses). But to me, they’ve all been wildly incorrect in their assessments. In fact (and from first impression), Suda is one of the nicest game creators you’ll ever meet as well as a really fun guy to chat with. But don’t let him know I said that – he’s got a reputation to uphold amongst some fans out there who still consider him an unpredictably mad genius flying around Japan in a wrestling mask or something.
That said, Lollipop Chainsaw, a collaborative effort between Suda, James Gunn (Super, one of the best indie films of 2010) and the team at Grasshopper (working the Unreal engine again to excellent effect) is a game that’s going to be called insane, crazy, weird and more by gamers and critics alike. And they’d be absolutely right – particularly those who quickly clue in on how great the game is by accepting all the offbeat content it doles out at a nonstop pace…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 