That's right, no new releases this week. Instead this week, Doom and Assault Heroes move to the Arcade Hits grouping and get a cut down to 400 MS points from 800. MS also took the time to let us know about some games that will be upcoming on XBLA.
* “Rocky and Bullwinkle” (Zen Studios Ltd.). And now, here’s something you’ll really like! Based on the highly popular cartoon series of the same name, “Rocky and Bullwinkle” on Xbox LIVE Arcade is a fast and fun party experience packed with over 100 micro-games and decked out in an authentic retro art style. All your favorite characters are coming straight out of Frostbite Falls and into your living room: Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, Dudley Do-Right and many more. Plus, players with an Xbox LIVE Vision camera can control 25 of these games using fun gestures. Gee whiz, Rock!
* “Shotest Shogi” (AI Factory Ltd. and Rubicon Development Ltd.). Experience a new kind of shogi, Japan’s top board game, which encourages complex tactical play and strategic sacrifices. Set in an elegant Japanese room, this beautifully rendered game features 16 challenging artificial intelligence opponents as well as an online multiplayer mode*. For beginners, “Shotest Shogi” on Xbox LIVE Arcade also offers an advanced tutorial that guides and tests players as they progress through the game.
* “TiQal” (Slapdash Games). An addictive new puzzler, “TiQal” takes players on an epic journey to save an ancient Mayan village. Players demolish enemy block walls by matching squares of the same color and building them up to unleash massive combo points and mind-blowing power-ups. Partner with a friend over local or LIVE* co-op play to rescue the village, while enjoying sumptuous graphics, pulse-pounding sound effects and an awe-inspiring musical score.
* “Wits & Wagers” (Hidden Path Entertainment LLC). Party and trivia fun! Even if trivia isn’t your thing, the first trivia and party game to hit Xbox LIVE Arcade is one in which players can win by making educated guesses, playing the odds or just knowing the interests of other players, whether they are local or online. Break out the Big Button Pad controllers or play couch vs. couch on Xbox LIVE for a trivia party extravaganza.
* “Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3” (Capcom Entertainment Inc.). Xbox LIVE Arcade’s “Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3” revives one of the most popular arcade shooters with an all-new adventure. Battle solo or recruit two other specialized commandos to conquer the evil tyrant, General Ratiev. Players can play as Codename Wolf, Coyote or Fox to take on waves of soldiers, rescue POWs and blow up armored vehicles through a variety of dangerous battlefields.
The PSN store updates regularly on Thursday afternoons. Included in my weekly feature will also be the european and japanese store updates as it is very easy to create accounts to get free stuff from there. Speaking of free, in the spirit of St. Patty’s Day we get free Dropkick Murhpys songs.
United States/Canada Games/Demos: -MLB 2K8 demo
-Toy Home Expansion Pack - $6.99
DLC: -Guitar Hero 3 - Drop Kick Murphys Pack - FREE
–”Famous for Nothing”
–”Flannigan’s Ball”
–”Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya”
-PAIN - Character “Muffy” (Cheerleader) - $0.99
-PAIN - Character “Ginger” (Nurse) - $0.99
Other: -Condemned 2: Bloodshot themes (2 of them)
-God of War: Chains of Olympus theme
-PAIN - Character “Muffy” theme
-PAIN - Character “Ginger” theme
Here is this week’s content release for the PLAYSTATION Store for PC. To download these games to your PSP, navigate to http://store.playstation.com. There, you’ll find descriptions of the content and directions on how to get started. For more on the PLAYSTATION Store for PC, please click here.
Demos (free)
* WipEout Pulse Demo
PSP Themes (free)
* God of War: Chains of Olympus Theme
PSP Wallpaper (free)
* God of War: Chains of Olympus Wallpaper (x4)
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United Kingdom DLC: -Guitar Hero III: Modern Metal Track Pack - €5.99 / £3.99 / AUD 9.95
–Avenged Sevenfold - “Almost Easy”
–Thrice - “The Arsonist”
–The Deftones - “Hole in the earth”
If you haven't heard by now, there's a new browser based RPG called Forum Warz. Let me spell it out for you. YOU SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME. This game represents what would be left if we drilled to the heart of the internet.
After a tutorial mode of how to attack a forum (complete with damage represented by numbers) you'll get to choose a class:
Camwhore - Basically the mage, you use sexiness(MP) to cause high damage, but have low HP and defense.
Emo Kid - Using tears(mp) to whine your way. Middle of the road
Troll - Brute assholes. High HP, low Doucebaggery(MP) but can dole it out.
Your job is to pwn threads in a forum until they're all pwned. Your ego(HP) takes hits from flames against you.
Just like an RPG you can buy new computers (up your stats) level up and get new abilities (my camwhore has the boob shot ability which does exactly what you think). You have online stores to buy new items/healing items as well.
What else? A fake ingame IM system with fake contacts who give you missions and do side quests.
I won't spoil the fun, but you will indeed get to cyber with a (fake) 60 yr old man.
SO GO GO GO. If you sign up, please note below and I'll send you an invite to clan TOID. BPG and I are already camwhores, so we can all be camwhores or feel free to choose the class that is right for you, damn emo kids.
Ah MS, is this what you're so afraid of? Sure I've got a penis level ready to go, but c'mon.
Nope, that's the reason right there:
A developer posted over in the Xbox.com forums for N+ and the following to say:
"Hi,
Nick from Slick Entertainment here. Getting level sharing in the game was our highest priority, and we had it all working quite nicely. When developing for the 360, you can't just put up a server at home to serve as a level database, the server has to be a Microsoft certified server, which easily costs more than the whole development budget we had to develop N+... So we had to get creative, and we had a method that used the leaderboards for level sharing. This was all working 100%, but unfortunately right at the end of development, we were told by the Microsoft legal team that they wouldn't allow us to share levels publically. The reason was that there was no system in place to moderate the level submissions, and they are definitely not having another Forza-swastika-car incident. However, we still do have a (somewhat toned down) version in our codebase, which we can enable very easily once they tell us that it's ok to open it up. So possibly in a future title update.... (keeping my fingers crossed because I really want this feature to be opened up as well)
So I think the petition thing is a good idea. Let them know that you want level sharing badly, and maybe they will be able to do something about it.. :)
Seems that Nintendo in their INFINITE WISDOM has decided that very soon DLC will be on the Wii, both for retail games (GH III says hi!) and for WiiWare.
I'm not surpised by that. However the kick in the crotch? Read below from Wired's blog:
"Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service has always been entirely free of charge, but the company will soon introduce a pay-to-play service for some games, it announced at Game Developers Conference.
"Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play" will let users subscribe on a game-by-game basis to certain titles. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced the service at GDC, but did not say what upcoming games would require payment for the service, or how much they would cost.
To avoid customer confusion, Pay-And-Play games will have a red icon on the game's box that reads Pay And Play, in place of the traditional blue Wi-Fi Connection icon, which will only be used for games that are free to play.
This is a pretty big change for Nintendo, who has always been adamant about wanting online gameplay to be free. While this might attract more developers to the service with a new revenue stream, it also might confuse consumers -- and be a hassle if the payment system isn't easy. You'll use Wii Points to pay for the online gaming, so it should be interesting to see if this extends to the DS Lite or if it's just restricted to Wii."
Yes I know it didn't specifically say SSBB, I just wanted to make you look. Did I?
DLC: Rock Band tracks - $1.99 each:
-Garbage - "Why Do You Love Me?" (master)
-Stone Temple Pilots - "Sex Type Thing" (master)
-Weezer - "El Scorcho" (master)
Trailers: -Bionic Commando: Rearmed
-Conflict: Denied Ops - "Developer Diary 4"
-MLB08 The Show - "Replay Vault Tutorial"
-MLB08 The Show - "Pitcher Batter Analysis Tutorial"
-MLB08 The Show - "Stolen Base"
Anyone who knows me realizes by now I like those off beat (not beat off) games. Things like Eye of Judgement, those niche titles that most mainstream gamers avoid like the plague.
So when I heard that one of my favorite PS2 games was getting a 360 version, I jumped for joy. I imagined online battles. And I was not disappointed.
Culdcept Saga
Developed by Omiya Soft
Culdcept is a different breed of game. The best way to describe it is Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering. The game itself has a brutal learning curve at first with card rules/restrictions, but the single player does a good job of explaining and training as you play.
So here is the basic premise of the game. You are a cepter who has the ability to use the cards. Moving your cepter around the game board, you want to win by reaching a score goal on the map. The first map has a goal of 5000. This value is made up of two things:
Mana - The magic power that allows you to summon creatures and play cards
Territory - When your creature is on a space, you own that land. The land value is part of your total score.
Each map can have multiple paths to go, but the basic premise is the same. You want to make your way around to touch the forts (or checkpoints) on the map, then return to the castle to complete a lap. The castle is like the Go space in Monopoly as you'll gain mana based on your current stats. The squares of the map are divided into multiple types. Element spaces are Fire, Water, Wood, and Earth. This is where you will summon creatures. Passing Forts nets you some mana and you need to pass them all to complete a lap. Shrines affect the entire map in some way with a random effect and fortune tellers allow you to draw a card from your deck of any type you want.
So maps are one half of the game. The second half are the cards. There are a total of almost 480 cards in the game. You can have up to 6 cards in your hands and you create your own deck from cards that you own. You're given a started deck to begin, and no matter if you win or lose, you will get cards to better your deck. In your deck are three types of cards:
Creatures - Creatures allow you to capture territory. They get bonuses for being on their elements, and there can be tons of rules based on them. Some creatures require discards to summon, others can't summon to specific element lands. Some are purely defensive and cannot attack at all.
Items - Items are used in battles to help your creature. If you need to defend your land, you may use armor to up the creature HP so it survives the attack. Attack items up your creatures strength to do more damage. Some items have skills such as reflecting damage, stealing opponent's items etc.
Spells - Spell cards are used on the map, not in battle. These can be used to attack creatures, heal HP, and even affect the dice which control your characters movement on the board.
Almost all cards have a mana cost, so summoning and using spells a lot can leave you without mana to defend yourself later on. You have to balance your card usage with your location on the game board.
The basic gameplay flows like a regular board game. You can use a spell if you wish then roll the dice. Once you land on a spot you can decide to take action. If it is an empty spot, you can lay down a creature to own the territory. If you land on an enemy, you either have to pay a toll (like Monopoly) or you can choose to fight the enemy to try to win control. This is where some of the strategy comes in. Early on, it's very cheap to pay the toll. If you attack and fail to win, not only have you used mana on your creature and items, but you still have to pay the toll.
If you land or pass your own creatures, you get more abilities. You can change the land element (to help your creature), level up the land (more on this in a minute), swap the creature with one in your hand, and even move the creature a space to attack or just take over another land.
The big option is to level up your land. This works very much like hotels in Monopoly. By paying mana, you can up the level of the land causing the tolls to rise as well as boosting the creature that is on it.
Just like Monopoly (see there it is again) you can bankrupt an opponenet who can't pay your toll and then cause them to sell off land to pay you. If you choose to fight, each player can choose to use an item to help their creature if they have the mana and items in their hand.
Sounds like an interesting premise, does it not? Add in four player multiplayer on and offline with team battles and the ability to set up rules such as turn time limits, banned cards etc. Multiplayer is easily the reason to play this, and it helps that you can get new cards in multiplayer as well so you don't have to slog through single player. Blind battles allow the game to make random decks out of all the cards in the game, not just the ones you own. You then choose one of 5 decks and play that way. While it is fun to see cards you haven't seen yet, these games take a bit longer as players have to deal with unfamiliar cards and abilities.
All this for the budget price of $40 doesn't hurt either. However the game is not without flaws.
In single player you will find the AI likes to cheat here and there. They may cast a spell to hurt your creature then roll the exact number they need to land there to attack it. Or they'll roll the right number to avoid your higher priced areas. Games both online and offline can take an hour or longer depending on number of players and score to win. Against the AI, nothing is more frustrating than playing for over an hour and losing at the end.
The graphics are very dated and aren't updated much beyond the PS2 version. While it's been helped moving to HD, there's not much to marvel at. Furthermore the battles are just the cards with their stats being attacked by a 3D weapon or spell and not the actual monster models from the map doing the battle. Music can get repetative quite quickly, especially when you lose to the AI constantly. Thank god for custom Soundtracks. The story for single player is very basic and you do well to even skip cutscenes (with some bad load time between each one).
If you like board games, card games, and generally games that are not the norm, this game could be for you. Even in losing a match, it's nice to be rewarded with some cards which could turn the tide to your favor the next time. The game is very enjoyable for fans of the genre, but do expect to spend time learning the game before finding the strategy and depth the mechanics have to offer.
So BuckF1tches posted not too long ago that there was a possibility of Left 4 Dead going to everything but the Wii. Well today, those hopes were dashed.
"OXM recently revealed that the game will not only be appearing on PCs, but that the 360 version will be the only one appearing on any console."
Also, the developer for the 360 port has been announced.
"The second part to this news is the identity of the developer who will be handling the 360 port (Valve and Turtle Rock won't be working with it hands-on). That dev is the creator of Halo 2 DLC, Certain Affinity. The 16 man team with former Halo team members will be "handle(ing) 360-specific elements like matchmaking, Live support, console customization, and 360 gameplay tweaks."
We've already got PixelJunk Racers and Monsters (Monsters being the better of the two) and now the 3rd and 4th games are announced.
Welcome PixelJunk Eden and PixelJunk Dungeons. Eden is apparently an abstract physics-based game where you collect pollen and birth flowers as a small blob. There's a trailer below. As for Dungeons, no trailer was shown but it is to be top down dungeon crawler.
So you're a little miffed about the new graphical style for SF IV? Or maybe you've started to get over it now that we've seen a little gameplay. Or maybe you like shoot-em-ups as much as Hito does.
Well over at AOU08, the trailer for King of Fighters XII from SNK Playmore debuted. 2D sprites aren't dead, they just needed to be overhauled.
First half of trailer is what KOF looked like now. Wait for :25 into the video to see the new overhaul:
EDIT - You can grab the non youtube direct feed here. The vid quality difference is obscene and will REALLY show you the game as it should be OMFG
OMFG I CAME
LOOK AT THE ANIMATION. I'm not ready to say quite Guilty Gear or SF III, but after a decade of almost the same animation and sprites, this is a godsend.
I am jumping with joy. 2D fighters aren't dead, they're making a comeback with KOF, SF IV, and Arc Systems' Blue Blaze etc. May god have mercy on our thumbs once again.
Just a guy who loves to talk video games a lot. I try to be funny and fail a lot, but I swear I'm worth having around.
I'm an older gamer (read:30) and I like to look back on all the good (and bad) that I played through in the before time.
I don't game as much thanks to my 1yr old daughter, but I do keep up on the latest things. As far as she's concerned, well she likes to hit the buttons a lot, which means she could win a few rounds of DOA.
