Syndicate Hands-On Update: A Fresh Perspective That’s Just Right (Again)

Posted on February 16, 2012 by geelw

With the release of Syndicate less than a week away, here’s a quick (and mostly spoiler-free) update on what to expect from Starbreeze Studios’ reboot of the PC classic. I had the chance to play through the game’s first two missions plus a tough co-op map with a few fellow journalist types at the Spotlight EA event last week and as I’ve been saying, the game absolutely nails the feel of the original game in many areas, improving on things by dropping the camera to first person and putting you into the shoes of cyber-enhanced corporate agent, Miles Kilo. Those of you out there still skeptically on your internet forum soapboxes need to step down and pick up a controller at some point, as any bit of quality time spent with the game will prove that it’s a winner that improves on many elements the original pioneered.

Continue reading →

Namco Bandai & Paramount Team Up To Publish Star Trek In 2013

Posted on February 11, 2012 by geelw

And of course, the first thing I thought of when I read this news was “OK, when do we see Kirk and Spock show up in Soulcalibur VI in an “Amok Time” themed stage?” Yes, I’m THAT old (but it would be pretty funny, especially if it had that combat theme that played during the Kirk/Spock battle). Anyway, Digital Extremes (Bioshock 2, Unreal Tournament, Dark Sector, The Darkness II) is no stranger to making some pretty solid shooter and action games, so I’m sure they’ll have more than enough time to make this co-op focused game even more spectacular than it looks in these two not so new screenshots. Granted, we’ll need a LOT more images and some actual hands-on time in order to see how the game is turning out, so let’s keep those fingers crossed that the game warps into NYC on a press tour at some point. More to come as soon as we get new info and images…

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock “Monsters” Trailer & Screens

Posted on January 28, 2012 by geelw

Courtesy of the official PlayStation Blog, here’s a nice visual update from the upcoming PS3 and Vita exclusive. I got a chuckle imagining a bunch of Cybermen, Daleks, Silurians and Silence all showing up in a studio somewhere in England, punching in to do some hard work acting out scenes from the game for the dev team and having breaks for 10 o’clock breakfast (English Breakfast and scones) and a 4PM tea time (Earl Grey with milk, please, mum!) before clocking out and heading to a nearby pub for Guinness all around and some hot shepherd’s pie. Is that enough awful stereotyping here or what? Anyway, the game is set to land in March, but we’ll have a more informative update shortly as to what form the games will take. Fingers crossed for retail and download versions so more can hop aboard the TARDIS and enjoy the ride…

Gallery: Street Fighter X Tekken

Posted on January 23, 2012 by geelw

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…

Continue reading →

Gallery: SSX

Posted on January 16, 2012 by geelw

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…
Continue reading →

Capcom Digital Collection Coming To Xbox 360 (On a Retail Disc!)

Posted on January 14, 2012 by geelw

How’s this for Kismet-ic energy? Last month, I poked fun at Sega for releasing Sonic CD as a digital-only game, and now Capcom comes up and drops this cooler news in my lap. Eight of the company’s HD remakes formerly only available as digital-only Xbox Live Arcade exclusives are coming to retail on a game disc. Eight games for a mere $39.99 is a solid deal indeed, although in my humble indie opinion, this set would be even better (where applicable) if it had the arcade originals on the disc and a bit of history on the original games as bonuses. Of course, I tend to over-think any disc based release these days as something that should be filled to the brim with content just to please those of us who really don’t mind paying more for a physical product over straight digital-only content.

As to what’s on the disc, I’m posting the title cards and logos below:

and a nicely-sized screenshot gallery below the jump. It’s up to you to guess which screens go with which titles (although it’s not hard to figure out at all)…

Continue reading →

Gallery Update: Asura’s Wrath

Posted on January 12, 2012 by geelw

Whoops. I forgot to run these screens with the trailer the other day, so here you go. The demo is out now, so go play it and groove on the weirdness and crazy action taking place. The funny thing about the demo is thanks to the score in one section, you can tell if someone’s playing it if they’re blasting their TV too loud. As I said already, I really HOPE people “get” what CyberConnect2 is doing here in terms of presentation, as the game breaks a few rules and sets up a few new ones that work for the story it’s telling…

Gallery Update: Game Of Thrones

Posted on January 11, 2012 by geelw

Focus Home Interactive and developer Cyanide Studios are making me a bit more thrilled about their upcoming game in each new set of screens. The upcoming action RPG is looking nice and dark in tone here, which matches much of the show’s look. Still, my kingdom for a torch or two to lighten the mood! Atlus is bringing this one out stateside sometime this spring for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, making this a super addition to their lineup if the game is anywhere near the quality of the books and HBO series. More screens to some as the roll out – stay tuned…

Asura’s Wrath Demo Is Alive & Kicking (and Punching) Over PSN/Xbox Live

Posted on January 11, 2012 by geelw

POW! With its February 21, 2012 release right around the corner, CyberConnect2’s paradigm-changing cinematic action game finally gets a playable demo and it’s purely insane earth-shaking stuff of the gods. And it’s funny as hell, too. Go play it and enjoy the crazy ride it takes you on. Capcom’s got a mega hit here that deserves a wide audience, so hopefully folks who think games like GOD HAND are the best thing since sliced bread will be all over this and tell as many friends as possible how cool it all is. What, you’re still reading this post? Don’t you have a demo to download? Go on, shoo!

Retro Exploration: Dreamcast (Part 6)

Posted on January 10, 2012 by geelw

Hey, how about a little Urban Chaos? Mucky Foot’s underrated action game was pretty fun on the PC and got a decent Dreamcast port (as well as a not so hot PS1 version) that, despite a few issues, made for quite an interesting “open world” experience before Grand Theft Auto III took the gaming world by storm. UC was definitely a bit more focused on getting missions done as quickly as possible in the mix of combat, shooting and vehicle sequences plus a bizarre story (the opening cinematic is still a head-spinner) common to some Eidos games of the era (Project Eden, anyone?). Here are a dozen “hidden” screens from the DC disc – I didn’t know there were cheats for this version of the game as the screen text shows (unless they’re PC version screens that didn’t get removed for some reason). As interesting as these screens are, it would have been nicer to see character and/or environment renders as bonuses, as the game has some nice looking assets here and there.