As you're all aware, Duke Nukem Forever is coming out in just two short months. After fourteen (!) years in development, people really aren't sure what to think. A lot of people have very fond memories of Duke Nukem 3D, which when it was released was a trailblazer for first person shooters, both in terms of interactivity and personality. Many games, especially first person shooters of the time, had a mute protagonist that was devoid or any sort of personality. Duke Nukem shattered that mold, bursting with an over the top personality and always ready with silly/crude one-liners. For many people Duke Nukem 3D, with its first person perspective, is the definitive Duke.

But right now I'm going to look at Duke from a different angle: that of a side scroller.

I know that it's pretty easy to forget, but Duke Nukem started out as a side scrolling series. The first time we see Duke is in 1991 in the appropriately titled Duke Nukem. There was no alien invasion, no babes to protect and save, and definitely no Pig Cops to give the boot to. Duke was just a mercenary hired by the CIA to stop Dr. Proton, a genius scientist who turned evil and is using his army of TechBots to try and take over the world. And apparently he could do it in time to watch Oprah.



Yep, Duke was manly enough to wear a pink vest and watch Oprah. Not quite yet the renounced symbol of masculinity and bad-assness, Duke was more subdued. He had the brash and cocky attitude, but no more than any bro with an ego. Gameplay-wise Duke Nukem mostly was a fairly standard action platformer, tasking the player with navigating the level, usually needing to explore and find an item or switch to proceed. It had little touches that made it stand out though, such as health pickups you could shoot which would alter their properties. Soda cans would give more health but had to be grabbed quickly before they rocketed off the screen, and live chickens would turn into nicely cooked ones.



I only ever played the shareware version of Duke Nukem, so I don't know if he made it home in time for Oprah, but it was especially for the time a fun action platformer. For the sequel two years later however, Duke really ups the ante.



Yep, he's wearing the iconic red tanktop now. Now world famous for his earlier exploits, he's apparently drawn the attention (for the first of many times) of aliens who abducted him while he's doing a talk show interview for his autobiography "Why I'm So Great".

Wait...



Huh... guess it's a reprint?

Anyways, the aliens are looking to scan Duke's brain and use his knowledge and experience to invade Earth. There's no plans specifically for women this time just a general invasion, but by now Duke Nukem is a bonafide hero and as such uses an "explodo-molar" (!) to bust out of his cell and begin his lifelong crusade as the ultimate Alien Ass-Kicker.



Duke Nukem II plays pretty much the same as the first, but greatly improves on graphics and sound, has vehicle segments, and overall just has a better flow. As a character Duke's self-confidence has shot through the roof, and his general tone and attitude is much more inline with all the stereotypical macho action heroes of the time. I mean, shooting a smiley face into a target just because he can? That's badass! As another sign of his new attitude, bonus points are given for collecting Duke Nukem merchandise such as tshirts and game cartridges.

Several years and many post Duke Nukem 3D first person adventures later, Duke returns to his side scrolling roots with Manhattan Project. A bit of a weird title, one which I think was only made to stop the fans from asking about Forever for a little while longer. There are no aliens to fight in this outing, instead the villain is Mech Morphix who bares a striking resemblance to Dr. Proton. I guess the rename was done to not disrupt the continuity of Duke Nukem Forever, which at least at the time was going to have Dr. Proton as the villain. Morphix is using a combination of killer robots and an army of mutants created using a radioactive goo called G.L.O.O.P. which he must have obtained during the events of Duke Nukem 3D as it results in the infamous Pig Cops.



Seen as a bit of a mix between the Duke Nukem games of old with Duke Nukem 3D, the game is a "2.5D" sidescroller with many weapons and stylings of the first person games. Duke's attitude and voice is in full effect here, constantly spouting wisecracks and one-liners. As mentioned it's a sidescroller but often the perspective will shift from the expected left/right, sometimes going in and out or moving at an angle. It's definitely worth checking out for any Duke Nukem fans, as it can be demoed on XBLA, but in my opinion it's just not as memorable as the "core games" of 1, 2, and 3D.

So there you have it: Duke Nukem from a different perspective. I know there was several third person action games for the Playstation, but I wanted to focus on Duke Nukem's side scrolling roots and highlight his adventures before he found himself in a porno theater. :)

This is... well either just under the wire or late. Either way I'm happy I wrote it and I hope you enjoy reading it :)

For the sake of things I’m going to mostly refer to Doom and Doom 2 as the same thing for this article. They’re both pretty much the game game (more like Doom 1.5, nyah), or at least have all the same draws to them and if you had one chances are you had the other. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to spend a bit of time talking about Doom. <3



The early 90s was when I was introduced to PC gaming. My parents bought an overpriced computer in 1992 during the Lillehammer Olympics, and I have vivid memories of my hatred of video game chess developing when Canada lost the gold medal hockey game. (thanks Chessmaster 3000!)

Like most PC gamers (at least those on a budget like my pre-teen self) did back then I played a lot of shareware games. Now, some of you might not have been familiar with the glory days of shareware, which usually offered of up to a third of a game included with most PC-focused magazeine, free if you were lucky enough to have online access, or for a couple of bucks on it’s own. There was never any of this “exclusive demos” or “early beta access” mess. Games were designed to be episodic and you’d get the first for pretty much the price of the disc/packaging.

These weren’t short experiences either, and Doom (bet you were wondering when I’d finally start talking about it) was no exception. Of the 27 levels available in the original release of Doom (pre-Ultimate Doom), 9 were available on shareware. And you can bet I played the living hell (hur hur) out of it. Countless space marines have fought their way through the demon infested facilities of Phobos to an untimely end just past the Barons of Hell. Some made it through very quickly, some managed to cheat their way to invulnerability, and eventually (once I got good enough) some managed to punch their way through the entire thing.


I saw this a lot

Yeah, I played it that much. Eventually of course I ponied up and bought first Doom II, then Ultimate Doom (the original with an bonus fourth episode), and proceeded to send a lot of undead soldiers and hellspawn back to the hole they crawled out from. I played Doom frequently for the next decade, and will to this day still boot it up every now and then.


The true face of fear

What could make this game have so much appeal after more than 17 years? I mean, it’s the most basic of first person shooters. You just collect key cards, open doors and shoot everything that moves. There’s no inventory management, moral choices, dialog trees, or even reloading! Of course it’s those very things that make it so good, all presented at a blisteringly fast pace. The correct way to play Doom is to stand still as little as possible. The longer you stand still the sooner the hellspawn will kill you. You need to frantically run, strafe, and shoot until there’s nothing left, all the while keeping track of scores of enemies at a time as well as where you are in relation to health/ammo pickups and any escape routes.

And while you’re doing this you’re treated to a soundtrack that’s sometimes haunting and sometimes foreboding, but always rocking your face off. I hope I don’t have to mention the iconic E1M1 song, but just in case:



What’s this? You’ve played the game enough times and are sick of the levels? Well in addition to being a pioneer for first person shooters, online multiplayer (it coined the term “deathmatch” after all) and violent games it was one of the biggest proponents of user generated content. Back when you could talk about a WAD without making people giggle, everybody took a stab at making their own masterpiece levels. There are enough custom levels and even total conversions of the game to last for hundreds more playthroughs. I couldn’t even begin to list them all here. Many, for better or worse are still available online today.


Not the greatest mod ever, but pretty darn close

Through it all though, I could just as easily boot back up Knee Deep in the Dead, and relive the glory days of first person shooting... pewpewpew...

Hello everybody, it’s your friendly neighborhood ScottyG here! Been playing quite a few games so far in 2011 (instead of getting a job, lol having little money) and I thought I’d tell you what I thought about them. It’s going to be mostly positive, as the joy of having limited funds is you make sure the limited games you buy are good, and you sure as heck make sure you get as much out of them as possible. They’re listed in the order I beat them in, but this in no way represents the order I’d recommend them as Ghost Trick would top the list by far. Read on to see what I thought.


Professor Layton and the Unwound Future



I’ve always had a love for the Layton Games. That classic Adventure/Puzzle charm, with excellent characters and story. I’ve bought all three day one, but I took a long break with this one. Finally finishing it in January I was as usual blown away by the twist and conclusion, as well as the puzzles which were as entertaining and... puzzling as ever, but with this one there were some things that bugged me. Most of them would involve spoilers, but the most immediate and bothersome for me is how the game treats Flora, basically as an air-headed burden on the Doctor and Luke. Definitely not the naive sheltered girl I always thought of her as.

If you are okay with spoilers however, PekoponTAS has written up some very good thoughts on how the story and twist was handled in this installment. It’s a real shame some of these points exist too, as I thought the insights into Layton’s past and the advancement of his and Luke’s relationship was brilliantly handled.


The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks



Seems to be an unpopular opinion, but the only portable Zelda I’ve really enjoyed was Link’s Awakening. Seemingly one of the last Zeldas to not rely on any sort of gimmick to drive it. Just a well built world with brilliant dungeons and monsters, and stellar music. Unlike many people I - aside from the Temple of the Ocean King of course - really liked Phantom Hourglass so when Naia was looking to get rid of her copy of Spirit Tracks for cheap I picked it up.

While I liked the on-foot sections a lot, travelling around by train was a huge pain and frankly boring. You were very limited in the paths you could take, and there were way too many obstacles that were just not fun to deal with. This might not have been a problem, but it seemed like the vast majority of the game was spent in your train. Bit late to the game with this one, but if you’re hankering for a Zelda there’s far better ones to spend your money on.


Bayonetta



The first time I played Bayonetta I wasn’t impressed. I mean, of course I was impressed by the visual style and just how bat-shit crazy everything was. Who wouldn’t be. But when I played the demo and then again at PAX all I thought of was Devil May Cry, which is a style of game I’ve never liked. Just seemed to rely too much on combo memorization for my liking.

Then I started reading/listening to game of the year deliberations, and Bayonetta was mentioned a lot. Darksiders as well, which was another game I missed out on. This got me wanting to play both of them, and the amazing Lelio was gracious enough to loan me both games. Haven’t gotten around to Darksiders yet, but I’m very happy that I gave Bayonetta another shot. The game is absolutely brilliant, and even more bat-shit crazy than my limited playtime let on! The fighting system is very simple to pick up and get good with, but still deep enough to allow for a plethora of options to help you slaughter the servants of heaven.


Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective



I’ve always been a sucker for a good adventure game, having grew up with so many classic Sierra and Lucasarts titles. This goes doubly so for anything really well animated. Both of these are things Ghost Trick excels at. The graphics, animation and music make for an incredible style that completely draws you in.

If haven’t heard much about this game (which is likely, given how little Capcom seemed to promote it), you start the game off dead and have a scant three abilities. You can “Ghost” to various items in your immediate vicinity (or through phone lines), “Trick” to manipulate them in some way, and (if you come across a recently deceased person) go back in time to four minutes before their death. The game’s story takes place over one night, and you must use these three powers to solve the mystery behind your own death before dawn.

I’ve always been facinated with the idea of what seemingly random people are doing at a particular moment, and how it can all connect together even in the slightest of ways. I’ve actually tried to come up with scenario/story designs to fit that. The story in this game is the closest I’ve ever seen for that, constantly whisking you back and forth around town, meeting all sorts of interesting characters and learning of the ties that bring them all together. Everything comes together in an ending that will just blow you away.

I implore you, if you are at all considering this game pick it up now. It’s getting pretty hard to find in retail stores, and Capcom needs to know that this game didn’t sell too well because they didn’t promote it enough, not because it’s a bad game! There is also news of an iOS version coming soon, which would be amazing. As you can see from the trailer above, the graphics would look great on an iPad. :)

Deadly Premonition has been out for awhile - nearly a year now - but it seems everyday someone new is discovering it. Or getting back into it after being pulled away by something else. I think this is great, as it was one of my favourite games of 2010 and one of the more memorable (notice I said memorable, not good) games of all time. This isn't to say the game isn't without problems of course, as many people have pointed out. My biggest problem with the game is that it does a poor job of explaining things that the player really should know, that make the game a lot easier and fun. Things that could easily cause someone to throw in the towel on this budget release.

So I thought I'd do a writeup for anybody in the process of playing or about to play this... weird and special game. This is mostly inspired by a friend who just loaned the game to, but of course it can apply to anybody. So enjoy! :)




Probably the biggest and most immediate misunderstanding people will have with Deadly Premonition is the time limits the game seems to impose on the player. There is always at least one time visible when travelling around, and most people will make the mistake of thinking that's a proper deadline. Thing is, while it is a time limit there's no consequence of missing it. The town of Greenvale is more than just filler between missions, it's a fully realized open-world city complete with a day/night cycle, changing weather that affects the environment, and citizens who have routines that change as the game progresses. So while you might have to meet someone by 17:00, the only real consequence to missing that appointment is having to wait until the next day. Likewise, when you're driving with someone (like George or Emily) and decide to get out of the car, you can meet up with them later or just wait until the next day to restart the mission.




What does this mean to the player? Well, it means they can take their time, and explore the world as much as they'd like! There's a lot to learn about many inhabitants of this little town, as evidenced here (only watch until 6:45, otherwise risk spoilers).




This of course leads into the sidequests. There are 50 sidequests that you can do throughout the game, giving rewards that range from nothing, to simple collectables, to items that make the game a lot less frustrating/tedious to play. This is of course in addition to revealing more about the characters involved, such as Emily's terrible cooking or actually learning about a particular character before they're killed off. You can only do each one during certain chapters in the game though, which can be determined under the sidequests section in the pause menu. A nice feature of the game is that when loading a save, you can choose to replay any chapter you've already done with all progress carrying over when you resume the game. The only downside is that if you're in the middle of a chapter, you'll lose all progress in it if you switch to another one and will have to start it over.




With all this exploring, you'll be affected by a few game mechanics that you could completely miss out on if you just play the main story straight through. The first one is the need for food and sleep. Simple enough really, if you don't get enough sleep your hunger will drop more quickly, and if you don't eat enough you'll start to lose health. Just make sure to take advantage of beds and always have lots of food in your inventory. Secondly is the gas/damage level on your cars. Take a look at your map, if you have a long distance to drive make sure to either fill up at the gas station or pick a car with a full tank. Running out of gas is really annoying, and it's easy to forget to take rescue flares with you.




Whether or not you indulge in the extras, you're going to have to shoot up some crazy monsters at one point or another. This is probably where most people give up on the game. A few things to remember are that combat is slow and your character moves like a tank, so you'll need to make sure to keep enemies in as close to a line in front of you as possible. When you're comfortable with how spacing works you'll find you can often run past enemies, which is incredibly useful when you find you need to run to the other side of the room to put space between yourself and some vicious zombies.

Furthermore, while auto-aim is useful for getting an initial bead on an enemy, it rarely targets the weak spot of an enemy (the head in most cases), so don't rely on it too much. There are also some quick time events that will almost certainly catch you off guard resulting in a quick and frustrating death. My only advice for these is to be ready for them at all times, and if you fail remember that the button prompts are always the same (or one or only a couple possible combinations) every time.




Lastly are a few things to save you some time. It probably won't take long before you're fed up with the painful amount of time it takes to go through doors or get into and out of cars. For doors, just run up to the door and hold the run button down as you're opening it to go through much more quickly. For cars, I can't remember which button but a simple button press will skip that cutscene. It just isn't the one you think.




And that's about it! There's more I could say about the combat, but these are all things you'll figure out. Hopefully by following these guidelines your journeys in Greenvale will be as memorable as mine were.

2010 has come and gone, and like everybody else I've been thinking back on the last year of gaming... the games I played, the games I wish I played, the games I wish I didn't play. Maybe it's the nature and traditions of what we do on NYE, or maybe it's just because of all the other GOTY lists we were bombarded with over the last few weeks. So without further delay, here's seven games I rather enjoyed and three I was quite disappointed by.

Keep in mind that this only covers games I played, and as I don't have a Sony system and my Wii is in a box over 3000 miles away leaves me with a fairly limited selection. These are also listed in alphabetical order so I don't have to choose one over the other, because at this point it's like picking which child you like the most. ;)



Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Up until the end of the summer I was squarely in the Call of Duty camp, however due to various circumstances that series was getting very tired for me. I took a friend's recommendation and picked up this game, and it's easily the best console shooter experience I've ever had. I've always been a fan the scale of Battlefield games, which is something most other shooters just haven't been able to replicate. There's a good variety with the weapons, the different classes force you to constantly change up your playstyle, and the only one thing you need to win is teamwork.

The Vietnam expansion that came out right at the end of the year was a massive boost, adding not only maps and weapons, but a completely new style that's unheard for most multiplayer shooters. Something about selecting that menu option and having CCR suddenly blare at you makes this a shooter I expect to be playing for quite awhile.

Deadly Premonition
This game was the big surprise of the year for me. I really didn't know what to expect from this game aside from the ridiculous trailers and videos posted on blogs, but it was a budget release (a real budget release, none of that $40 budget nonsense) so I figured why not.

What I got was one of the most interesting gaming experiences I've had in awhile, with a story that is equal parts absurd, silly, and deep. Swery managed to make an entire town and fill it with characters I actually cared about, who had daily schedules and plenty of hidden secrets for anybody able to find them. Sure the actual gameplay mechanics weren't very good and the game did a bad job of explaining things the player really should know (like how the game handles time and mission deadlines), but this is one of those rare cases for me where the story and characters made up for the gameplay deficiencies. I played through the story three times to get all the achievements, and given all the complaints about the gameplay shows just how much I liked the story.

Pac-Man CE DX
It's amazing how Namco was able to reinvent Pac-Man three years ago with Championship edition, changing the focus from just mere survival and maximizing the use of power pellets to gobbling down as much fruit as possible for high scores. All while keeping the feel of what makes a Pac-Man game. You'd think there's nothing else they could do with the Pac-Man formula, but CE DX shows just how wrong you'd be. It's such a fundamentally different game than any other Pac-Man game, but when you play it it's still undeniably Pac-Man.

This is the game for me to just shut my brain off and rely on pure reflexes to survive and chow down on that massive ghost train, while the amazing soundtrack just keeps up the frantic high energy feeling.

Picross 3D
Another bargain title, which I bought solely based on the recommendation from Jeff Gerstman's quick look. I'd never played a Picross game before, but this one has spent more time in my DS than any other game this year, possibly ever. And I still haven't solved every puzzle! I now see what all those people who obsessively play Sudoku are going on about, as it's the perfect game for both short bursts and marathon sessions.

Red Dead Redemption
Never been a big fan of westerns, and I'm always baffled and how Rockstar can make protagonists that are... well, little bitches. While RDR keeps up the tradition of the latter with John Marston, they've managed to once again craft a giant world that is just fun to run around in. With the high production values the studio is known for, and a story and set of characters that in typical Rock Star fashion are as memorable and insane as the situations the protagonist keeps finding himself in. Cap it off with an amazing end sequence that kept you guessing on when the game had actually ended and you have one of the best all around single player experiences of this year.

Super Meat Boy
I've always been a fan of 2D platformers, especially challenging ones that don't cross the line into masocore territory. Giving challenge that doesn't rely on cheap "GOTCHA!" memorization tactics is a hard thing to do, but Super Meat Boy does a great job of skirting that line. Having short levels with fast respawn is a godsend as even if you know the level you'll likely die a lot due to the sheer precision required, When you do beat a level, Team Meat included the brilliant feature of showing all your attempts in the replay video. Toss in ten shitloads of both retro and indie game references, and a cast of characters that might as well be an indie all star team and you have an very complete package that, along with free dlc levels, Team Meat has ensured is well worth the asking price.

VVVVVV
Another challenging platformer, VVVVVV is similar to Super Meat Boy but in many ways very different. The whole game is one giant level you can explore Metroid style, and can beat in an hour if you know what you're doing. This doesn't stop it from being a brilliantly crafted game however, which uses just one simple mechanic in way more ways than you'd think possible. Controls are spot on, the simplistic graphical style is pulled off perfectly, and the chiptunes soundtrack is the best I've heard in years. On top of all that, Terry made the brilliant design decision to allow the user to unlock all extras and bonuses at anytime if they want, under the premise that they should be able to play the game they paid for however they like. I bought this game from his website when it first came out, and then again when it came out later on Steam, and will gladly buy a third time it if it comes out on XBLA.



Now, countering this list are three games that, while not necessarily bad, are ones that I can't help but be disappointed in...



Comic Jumper
Let me start this by stating that I LOVE Twisted Pixel. The Maw, and especially Splosion Man are among my favourite games released this console generation. The developers have a knack for not only creating adorable and hilarious characters and worlds, but integrating them all together in some sort of impossible game universe. Comic Jumper, while being full of more of the same charm and humour than you'd think possible (they made FMV relevant again for god sakes!) is... a sadly mediocre game to actually play. Not bad, but just... so meh. A weird dual joystick platformer/shooter/brawler hybrid style with enemies that take frustratingly long to beat, it's a far cry from the sheer joy in gameplay that their previous titles have.

Game Room
So much wasted potential. I was really behind the idea of Game Room: A legalized emulation alternative with extra features modern consoles offer like leaderboards, stat tracking and friend challenges. Where I assume it fell flat was... well, they just didn't get the games. Even if they did though, the pricing didn't help. While something like Jackal is debatably worth $3 (or $5 to play on any supported device) most of the games, little more than Intellivision/2600 shovelware, simply aren't worth that much. Especially when you can buy 2600/Intellivision collections for a fraction of the price elsewhere.

After the developer was shut down and the last minute release of game pack 13 right at the end of the year (which was capped off with the "joke" demo Venetian Blinds) it looks doubtful anything else will come out of Game Room.

And we never got Sunset Riders...

Monday Night Combat
I just don't understand how devs keep thinking online only downloadable games on a console are a good idea. The turnaround for all but the top handful of games is depressingly fast, yet we constantly see these games released. I guess devs are able to make profits with these releases, but with my limited money having at best a few weeks of gametime before 99% of the players move on is a really tough sell.

This sucks even more so when the game as as good as Monday Night Combat is. It's a game that deserves a lot more attention than it got, which is why I bought it. Even though I was going to be away from any sort of gaming for almost a month, what with a cross country move and PAX coming up, I still bought it. And I had a few very fun nights until I got sick of trying to find a match. Even my friends who piss and moan about how nobody will play it find excuses to play CoD instead when this comes up. Hopefully the PC version finds a more stable and sizable fanbase.

Hello my lovely Dtoiders! <3

If you had read my PAX recap, or haven't talked to me online much lately, you may have noticed that I won a Comic Jumper themed XBox 360 Slim. Well, it's a bit delayed, but here's a little video tour of this lovely prize.


Forgive the poor video quality :\

The system is just a slim with a custom skin on it. Not to downplay it of course, as it's a free 360 Slim. Plus as you can see it looks absolutely gorgeous.



Now how did I manage to win this beautiful piece of hardware? Well, the amazing Twisted Pixel gave away three of these pretty little things over the course of PAX: Friday's was the prize for a Splosion Man contest, Saturday's was for a Comic Jumper contest, and Sunday's was a random draw. I won mine on Friday, which involved playing one of the new Splosion Man levels that can be unlocked through Comic Jumper, with the best time winning. Now, if you know me on XBox Live you might know that I'm a bit of a local legend in Splosion Man. In fact the only person at PAX that I felt threatened by was our very own Dexter345, who can bend the Splosion Man matrix just about as well as I can. Thankfully he was in panels all afternoon and wasn't aware of the contest, so I came out the winner. ^_^

A few thoughts on the level: it's a very long and challenging level, full of pretty much every obstacle Big Science can through at you. You have the rising water sequence, giant robot chase, long fall, Rollerbots... pretty much everything but the Shooterbot I belive. It's a very fun level, and I'm looking forward to how the other one will play out.

Now if you'll excuse me, I believe my Comic Jumper download is done (2GB???), so off I go to play it! <3