Gaming Today |
- Super Scribblenauts Review
- This X-Men Arcade Trailer is Exactly What You Think It Is, Which Is Awesome
- Tetris — Le Film Trailer
- A Spiffy New Vehicle Mod For Killing Floor
- Enslaved Upgrades
- Gearbox Wants PC Games to Play Nice With Each Other
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Codes
- 28 People Dressed as Pokemon-Related Things (PICS)
- SimMars Beta 3 Released
- Batman: Arkham City Gets Gritty New Screens
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Singleplayer Trailer on Monday Night Football Tonight
| Posted: 12 Oct 2010 12:11 AM PDT Video games don’t typically give you real-world freedom, but rather the illusion of freedom. It’s a common disappointment to fire a shotgun at a door, and have nothing happen. It’s just an illusion. Your imagination is constantly smacking into all sorts of these invisible walls. Wish you had Ninja Stars in Call of Duty? Too bad. You just don’t, soldier. Deal with it. The 2009 DS puzzle game Scribblenauts simply said “to hell with that.” You are Maxwell, a happy little guy tasked with solving puzzles. Rather than give you an inventory of ready-made tools to solve these puzzles, Scribblenauts invited you to use your imagination — think of a noun, type it on the keyboard using the Stylus, and it will appear in the game, behaving as it naturally would. Need to get across a lake and feed a tiger? Give yourself “Wings,” fly across, and feed the tiger a “Wizard.” Why not? You can do whatever you want. Now Super Scribblenauts is here, and your imagination is further liberated with the addition of “Adjectives.” Keeping the above example, Super Scribblenauts lets you create “Fiery Polka Dot Wings,” and feed a “Giant Furry Wizard” to the Tiger. Tee hee! I literally made that sound while playing this game. It’s crazy. More examples: Regular Dragons are so 2009. You need a “Tiny Sad Dragon,” of course, who will mope around. If a Library is too boring for your town, why not make it a “Floating Wacky Library?” The addition of adjectives shoots the concept into outer space. You can even create different types of “Potions,” for different desired effects. Create a “Sleeping Potion” to put a guard to bed, or make a “Poison Sword” to take down a bunch of Orcs. There’s a lot of pleasure to be derived from simply trying to stump the game, and use nouns or adjectives you don’t think it knows. This will lead to some pleasant surprises, for sure. In a level where I had to create a girlfriend for a giant robot, I had to first start with a construction material. I jokingly typed “Adamantium.” Bam: Super Scribblenauts has freaking Adamantium. This is what really makes the game fun — it brings out the kid in you, letting you run rampant in a magical, linguistic sandbox. Another level asked me to build a clown with two separate parts. I went: “Funny Bum,” + “Clown Costume” = Clown, and it worked. I love that it let me say Clowns are Bums! There’s little moments of humor and wit hidden throughout the game here, and it’s a joy discovering them. One new addition to the game that keeps it moving is the “Merits” system. These are basically Achievements, which you’ll unlock as you use new words, new objectives, and come up with especially creative solutions. You can also replay levels to unlock Gold Crowns, which are awarded after completing the level three times in a row using different approaches each time. Super Scribblenauts has 10 distinct “worlds” to play through, each with about 10 levels, for a total of 120 puzzles. This took me about 8 hours to play through. Even after you beat the main game, you can jump in to the level editor, make your own levels and share them over the DS’s wi-fi. If you want more challenge, jump into the “Special Constellations,” which are tough action-oriented puzzles that often involve flipping levers with precise timing. The first Scribblenauts was not perfect, and neither is Super Scribblenauts. Moving Maxwell around is certainly easier, but selecting objects is not. Maxwell often has a bunch of objects attached to his person: shoes, a cape, a hat, a jet pack, and so on. If you want to remove one specific object, it’s a bit of a pain. You’ll need to just start stripping Maxwell of objects, in hopes that the one you want comes off soon. You can’t precisely pick. Also, trying to grab specific objects simply doesn’t work very well. You’ll often walk in the direction you’re clicking, or select the wrong object. These don’t even come close to breaking the experience though. Super Scribblenauts is a wonderful game that improves on the original. It’s Mad-Libs-meets-LEGOs, it’s even more fun with the addition of adjectives, and there’s a bunch of reasons to dig back in once you beat it. Go dream up some Frothy Funny Giant Striped Cthulu monsters already. Super Scribblenauts is out October 12, 2010, exclusively for the Nintendo DS. Pros: Cons: Overall Score: 91/100
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| This X-Men Arcade Trailer is Exactly What You Think It Is, Which Is Awesome Posted: 11 Oct 2010 09:05 PM PDT Are you old enough to have played the X-Men game at an arcade? If not, then go f**k yourself, because I’m not old. I’m f**king not. I’m a young person, damn it. I’m the youngest employee at FileFront, yes, and the fact that I played the X-Men game in the arcade at the mall and at Chuck E Cheese when I was a wee lad does not make me old. Sigh. OK, so the old X-Men arcade game is coming to your current generation consoles as a download. It should be the greatest times we’ve ever had with these consoles. Because oh my god it’s a great, fun game. Because when I was a boy –WHICH WASN’T VERY LONG AGO — it was great fun. And here’s a trailer that will explain just how much great fun it is. And I’ll let that do the talking, because my talking muscles are impaired after that devastating Braves loss tonight.
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| Posted: 11 Oct 2010 03:42 PM PDT I always knew there would come a day when taking French in high school and then minoring in it in college would pay off. That day is today. Here we have the fake trailer for the fake movie Tetris: Le Film, and it’s all in French, and it’s all the more funny to me because I know what “carré” means. I have no doubt that non-French speakers will still be entertained by this, though, so don’t run off just yet.
After watching that for a second time, I think I’ve determined that I can find more humor in this than either people who don’t speak French or people who are native speakers. But I get hit with the combination of intended humor as well as the whole “the French language is so funny” thing. I have the complete package, and it is good.
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| A Spiffy New Vehicle Mod For Killing Floor Posted: 11 Oct 2010 03:37 PM PDT And welcome to the week’s most meta post. Killing Floor started life in 2005 as an acclaimed, zombie based full conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004. Loads of accolades led to the creators’, particularly lead developer Alex Quick, promotion from the minors, as numerous companies attempted to take the game full retail. Tripwire eventually did the honors and the full retail version was relased in May of 09. We all know what this means: The mod that went legit now has a ton of mods of its own, and the latest is a just-released vehicle pack that adds quite a few new ways to kill zeds deader than Britpop as quickly as possible. Let’s give a big round of applause for Killing Floor Vehicle Mod.
Wicked, right? You’ve already been dropped into an English suburb straight out of Shaun of the Dead. And you’re still up against swarm after swarm of completely disgusting undead hordes. But now, you have cars to play smashy smashy with. They also built in a pretty neat limitation in the form of actually having to keep your vehicle fuled up. No more endless gasoline video game driving for you, now you’ll need to periodically risk your life running to grab fuel for the car if you want to keep making zombie windshield paintings. Other features include: * 1st person and 3rd person for vehicle visuals. * A zoom feature for passengers * A mechanic’s welding tool for on the spot repairs. And more that you can read about in full, here. Meanwhile, there are three download packs for gamers with different needs: Version 1001 (Auto) – This one comes with all the necessary files for the Killing Floor Vehicle Mod as a self executable file, but does not include the maps. After installation, you’ll be permitted access to a dedicated server where you’ll find maps on a download redirect. Version 1001 (Manual) – Same as above, only it’s manual install instead of a self-executable file. Map Pack 1 – This is the full version. It comes with all Vehicle Mod maps. It’s a larger file but it’s mandatory for players who want to play solo campaigns. Happy killing!
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| Posted: 11 Oct 2010 01:36 PM PDT If you collect enough Tech Orbs while wandering the post-apocalyptic environs of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, you can spend them on upgrades for all your different abilities. Below, we’ve tabulated all the upgrades, along with their costs and effects. Health UpgradesHealth Extension Health Extension 1 – 20,000 – +25% Health Health Regeneration Health Regeneration 1 – 60,000 – Health increases slowly over time Shield UpgradesShield Recharge Shield Recharge 1 – 15,000 – +25% Shield Recharge Shield Strength Shield Strength 1 – 20,000 – Shield absorbs more projectile fire Block Strength Block Strength 1 – 20,000 – +25% Block Combat UpgradesWide Attack – 45,000 – Increases the amount of time enemies are staggered after using your Wide Attack Stun Charge Upgrade – 42,500 – Stun charge attacks affect all nearby enemies Focused Attack – 60,000 – After landing a series of quick attacks, your staff will glow, enabling you to unleash an instant kill attack on a single enemy Counter Attack – 45,000 – When you successfully block, you can do huge damage with a counter Evade Attack – 50,000 – When you successfully evade, you can do huge damage with a counter Combat Awareness - 5,000 – Enemies around you are color code: red for attacking, blue for blocking, and yellow for vulnerable Staff UpgradesFire Rate Fire Rate 1 – 7,500 – +25% Fire Rate Ammo Increase Ammo Increase 1 – 10,000 – Carry 15 Stun and 12 Plasma Ammo Stun Time Stun Time 1 – 15,000 – +25% Stun Tie
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| Gearbox Wants PC Games to Play Nice With Each Other Posted: 11 Oct 2010 01:23 PM PDT At the London Games Festival last week, Steve Gibson, Marketing Head at Gearbox, spoke with the festival’s blog about the upcoming release of the long-awaited, near vaporware title Duke Nukem Forever. When asked if the title would appear on Steam, Gibson didn’t give a direct answer. Instead, he said,
Making heads or tails of an argument like this is a confusing proposition, so let’s break it down. Any game that exclusively uses Steamworks, Valve’s back-end API that requires a Steam ID, will only allow those folks who own the game and have a Steam account to play together. That sounds bad, but the truth is that requiring a Steam account only forces folks to spend about 3 minutes registering, and they’re in. This doesn’t even apply to every game on Steam, just those that use the Steamworks API. It’s rare to see a major title exclusive to either service, unless it’s published by Valve or Microsoft. Even then, some of those games are operating across multiple services. For example, Relic’s Dawn of War II integrated both Steam and GFWL support. Of course, it also required users to have accounts on both services, which was a bit of an annoyance. Sure, there are a few titles out there that are exclusive to one service or another, but the vast majority of games will allow you to play with anyone, regardless of where they purchased their copy of the game. This has been the situation for years in PC gaming, with larger titles offering their own servers (in many cases hosted by third-party companies and paid for by players, as was the case with the Battlefield series), and smaller titles opting into agreements that would allow them to lease the middleware for matchmaking from services like GameSpy Arcade, Steam, or others. Gearbox itself has used this option, with Borderlands using the GameSpy service for matchmaking in Borderlands, meaning that if you bought the game on Steam you need a second set of login credentials just to play with your buddy online. All of these services have one thing in common: they make life easier for smaller developers. After all, if you don’t have to provide servers and support for multiplayer, it cuts a nice chunk out of the budget you need for your game. Sure, you have to give a little bit of your sales percentage to Steam (or whoever’s servers you use), but the overall headache for you is greatly reduced. The problem with criticizing these systems is that they are simultaneously good and bad for PC gaming. On one hand, Steam and similar services allow smaller developers a place to market and sell their games without sinking millions of dollars into ad campaigns. On the other, they can be limiting in terms of who is able to play together. Still, it’s at least a little disingenuous to imply that there are vast segments of the gamer population that aren’t able to play their PC games together. The vast majority of games have no such restrictions. If they do, many gamers will resort to options such as LAN play through a VPN such as Tunngle or Hamachi to get their game on with friends. It’s a major issue that likely won’t be resolved unless one distribution service wins the battle and devours all the others. With the success of Steam, and Microsoft’s “renewed commitment” to PC gaming, that doesn’t seem likely anytime soon.
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| Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Codes Posted: 11 Oct 2010 12:49 PM PDT Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the latest installment in an ancient and venerable franchise, so it only stands to reason that the designers included some old-school touches. Chief among these are the cheat codes, which will turn Gabriel Belmont into an unstoppable killing machine. There is a special cheats sub-menu, found under extras, that must be unlocked by entering certain codes. These codes should be entered at the level loading screen, after the level has loaded, but before pressing Start. Use the D-pad for the directions Xbox 360 Code: Up, Up, Down, Down Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A (Look familiar?) PS3 Code: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Circle, X Note that activating the cheats will disable auto-saving, and prevent you from earning trophies or achievements. Need some help with the game, but don’t want to resort to cheating? Check out our full walkthrough!
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| 28 People Dressed as Pokemon-Related Things (PICS) Posted: 11 Oct 2010 12:34 PM PDT I’m not what anyone would call a big Pokemon fan, but I am definitely a well known connoisseur of androgyny, and people who like to dress up as Pokemon characters deliver that like no other fanbase, as you’ll discover. Sure, there are some hot ladies in here, and that fat guy is definitely a guy, but very often you’re going to look at the pictures and feel as sexually confused as anyone ever has been. Enjoy.
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| Posted: 11 Oct 2010 12:29 PM PDT Whenever I pull Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy out of the vaults, I end up spending uninterrupted days nose deep in Martian politics and turbonerdcity science talk; ultimately I begin to obsess over the realistic possibility of Terraforming Mars. The Red Faction series is a blast, but as a means of scratching this particular Mars itch, they just don’t cut it. What I really, really want is the chance to zone out for hours, Civilization style, while I completely destroy Mars’ pristine environment and turn it into a low gravity version of Earth. Enter SimMars, a SimCity 4 mod that takes the delightful time suck of the venerable city-building simulator series and transports it to Mars. SimMars plays identically to SimCity 4, but in addition to the vast rust-colored expanse on which you’ll build your new city, it also comes with 180 new buildings, new (presumably sci-fi) transport systems, ordinances, Mars related disasters and news reports. It also comes with a geeky original soundtrack that’s 50% chiptune and 50% NES Metroid. F*** Yes, holmes.
No word on whether Quaid will use you as a human shield, but I’m sure you can guess what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day. Get it from File Front here.
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| Batman: Arkham City Gets Gritty New Screens Posted: 11 Oct 2010 08:14 AM PDT We’ve seen a few things leak out about Batman: Arkham City so far, but today we’ve got the first official screenshots from Warner Bros. In addition, Game Informer has revealed a their cover story featuring Rocksteady’s upcoming sequel. Enjoy the screens, and be sure to give the Game Informer story a look. It’s a great read.       
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| Call of Duty: Black Ops Singleplayer Trailer on Monday Night Football Tonight Posted: 11 Oct 2010 07:16 AM PDT It’s Monday, and in October that means Monday Night Football. We’ve seen some huge game ads during sports events before, including the Starcraft 2 trailer that aired during Game 4 of the NBA Finals earlier this year. Tonight, Monday Night Football will be home to the first trailer featuring the singleplayer campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops. In an effort to get more people to tune in, Treyarch and Activision have released a little teaser of the trailer. I wonder how many will be tuning in to see the Vikings take on the Jets, how many want to see if Brett Favre is sending any more racy text messages, how many want to see Randy Moss in a Vikings uniform again, and how many just want to see the new CoD trailer. Too bad we can’t get numbers like that from Nielsen, eh? You can check it out below, or your can download it right here at FileFront
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