Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning/Mass Effect 3 Demo Bonus Gear Revealed

Personally, I’d have preferred to see this cool gear made available on the game discs (for those folks who can’t try out the demos thanks to no/slow broadband access), but I guess that crowd will have to suffer without the cool swag unless it pops up on a reprint down the road. Granted, none of the gear in this trailer is probably necessary to clear either game, but it all sure looks cool, doesn’t it?  As for that demo, it’s really excellent. The game absolutely is NOT trying to be “realistic” in a Skyrim or Dark Souls manner where carry weight, proper blocking or balance when swinging a weapon comes into play. Hell, you’re running too fast for wearing armor, the colors pop in a more graphic novel/fantasy art manner and overall, the gameplay owes more to faster-paced action games more than classic RPG’s.

Still, these will be major selling points to those gamers who disliked the games mentioned for their pacing and general overkill in a few areas. As for me, I can make the distinction between many types of games, so I’m all in for Amalur as well as anything else that comes down the pike as long as it’s well done. EA, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games have a big, huge hit on their hands, so don’t pass it up when the game hits retail on February 7, 2012. I’ll need to flip a coin to decide which console version to pick up, but I’m leaning towards the PS3, as it’s the system that’s given me the least (as in NO) troubles over the long haul.

The Darkness II Demo: Not For The Squeamish, Kids Or Anyone Not Expecting A Load Of Not-So-Nice Stuff

If ever a game earned its Mature rating, it has to be this one. Let’s just say that Digital Extremes has done a mighty fine job taking the reins from Starbreeze Studios for this upcoming sequel and they pull no punches when it comes to the game’s content. What works is the overall dark tone of the demo, the beautiful color palette (gory bits and swearing set on staccato aside, the game is quite striking to look at) and the bits of humor in the midst of all the violence. While the sequel will ship with a 4-player co-op mode, I’m all about the single player campaign and getting into the story. The demo has been out for a few days now and it comes highly recommended for those of you out there interested in the game, but on whatever fence folks who don’t run out and snap up quality games hang out on.

February 7, 2012 is the launch date and although I don’t expect any midnight launch parties or massive roll-outs for this shooter, it absolutely deserves a wiser audience than the first game got. Of course, between this game, BioShock Infinite and Borderlands 2, 2K Games has a great chunk of the FPS market sewn up very tightly, I’d say.

SoulCalibur V Story Trailer

Namco Bandai’s newest installment in the long-running fighting game series finally lands in stores at the end of the month (January 31, to be exact). Here’s a look at the game’s story trailer, which as usual, is that high quality Namco CG awesomeness they’re well known for. Project Soul has injected a more action game dynamic to the fighting with faster (and more fluid) character animation for even the returning favorites which should shake things up considerably as slower fighters get a speed boost that some hardcore fans may not initially care for. Me, I’m easy as long as the game is good and is packed to the gills with content.

Gallery: Street Fighter X Tekken

Capcom’s upcoming crazy mash-up fighting game extravaganza (coming to the PS3, PS Vita, Xbox 360 and PC sometime this year) and  has my interest piqued for a few reasons such as the mixture of completely different fighting styles and the amazing visuals that blend outrageous stylization with fantastic animation both franchises are known for. The game also makes me think back to when I saw each series for the first time and how both Street Fighter and Tekken changed the fighting game landscape when they were introduced to the public. OK, OK, I actually played the original Street Fighter first, but we won’t talk about that here, right Capcom?

Anyway, a baker’s dozen screens below the jump – more to come…

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Max Payne 3 Gets Release Dates, Extended Pre-Order (Bullet) Time

I’d have posted this news when it arrived yesterday, but I had a little incident that kept me away from posting for a bit. Thanks, Max. Look, I know you’re terribly excited about your new game, but please keep the house calls to a minimum. I can use less lumps upside the head, too. Ouch. Anyway, May 15, 2012 for North America and May 18, 2012 in Europe for PS3 and Xbox 360. PC gamers get theirs in North America on May 29, while Europe gets theirs on June 1. You can also (and wisely) pre-order the game from a few places online or off, if there’s a game shop near you. Rockstar as extended the time to pre-order the game until April 2, 2012, which means you should probably snag that Special Edition if you like what you see on the pre-order page, correct?

Hmmm… that US release IS a week after my birthday, so perhaps Max will be a tiny bit nicer and drop off a little gift as an apology of sorts. Of course, I could just wake up again with my other foot in the toilet and another lump on the head, so I won’t push my luck…

Resident Evil 6 Set For November 20, 2012 Release

I may be the only person NOT surprised at this news, but there you go. Capcom has dropped the big news, so RE fans still unwilling to grab a 3DS for the upcoming Resident Evil Revelations (which is looking really great, by the way – if you own a 3DS, the demo is out NOW!) can now prepare for the followup to Resident Evil 5 when it hits PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on November 20, 2012. The awesome 3+ minute trailer is posted over on my M-Rated game stuff blog, as I’m playing nice for the family audience out there (and it seems that no one has been able to program a simple age gate bloggers can use- what’s up with that?). Anyway, believe it or not, PRE-ORDERS are already being taken for the game over on the official Facebook page, so click on over to do the sign up and “Like” thing and check out the gory details for yourself…

Oh, by the way… 70,000 zombies? Yikes. The game better have some sort of kill counter, that’s for sure.

Starhawk Comes Out The Day After My Birthday…

Yeah, yeah, the public beta is out and plenty of fans have been playing the thing for a while at events and such, but I’m going to jump in feet first on launch day and figure stuff out on my own. Granted, I’m in it for the single player first and foremost, so there’s that. From the bits I have played and seen at Sony press events, I can tell this one’s going to be huge to the point of potentially getting a few gamers away from certain modern shooters for a bit. The team at Lightbox has really cooked up an instant classic and along with some of Sony’s other 2012 surprises, this looks to be the best year for the PS3 (and PS3 owners, of course)…

Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland Prologue

Gust Inc.’s swan song for Nippon Ichi looks to be their best game to date in the long-running Atelier franchise. Sure, it’s a niche game, but it’s got a nicely sized fan base that snaps up every entry.  Check out the game’s official web site for more info and go pre-order a copy if you like what you see. I say absolutely let NISA know you’re one of those who’ll enjoy the game by getting it directly from their online shop as soon as possible. The game is set for a May 2012 launch, but if you’re getting the Prinny Bomb newsletter sent to your inbox, you’ll have a heads-up as to when pre-orderimg kicks off.

Gallery: SSX

EA Sports’ Communications Manager Duke Indrasigamany looked pleased but slightly annoyed the last time I saw him a few months back at EA’s Holiday event here in NYC. He’d spent the better part of the day playing through a demo build of SSX for small groups of game journalists and it seemed that only a few of them were coming away excited. I passed by the demo area when I entered, planning to loop back around and get some hands-on time with the game, but it took me a while to get there. After a few hours of playing SWTOR (excellent), Syndicate (REALLY surprising), Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3’s multiplayer modes (awesome), Funcom’s amazing The Secret World (great, but needs an offline mode), and the Dragon Age II expansion (featuring Felicia Day, everyone’s favorite gal gamer/multimedia star du jour), I finally made my way back to the SSX station and sat down with Sir Duke for a bit of fun in the high mountain air…
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Gallery: PlayStation 3 Library

Just like my Xbox 360 library, the amount of stuff I have here has gone up and down as I play through games and trade or sell them off. I’d say I’ve owned at least triple what’s here more or less since the console’s launch. As i noted earlier, a good deal of this generation’s titles across every platform are less appealing to me than some older games for other consoles I own. Maybe it’s too much focus on visuals over gameplay in some areas or too much DLC combined with lesser out of box experiences that seem lacking. I’m still figuring that out, as I do love seeing what different developers can do with the PS3 (or any other) hardware…