Been a while since we got a good look at Splash Damage’s Brink, huh? G4 has an exclusive new video that shows how the game handles movement across objects, and it’s worth a watch if you’ve been keeping up with the title.
The game’s S.M.A.R.T. system is something I’ve heard an awful lot about, but have never really seen it in action. It’s similar to all of those open-world games (let’s use Prototype as an example) where you hold a button down to see your character automatically perform kickass parkour moves.
The difference here is that there’s more interactivity involved with it, and some level of thought is required to pull of those cool acrobatic feats. In theory, it’s a neat idea. I’ll be very interested to see how it handles in a live multiplayer setting.
More than anything else, I love Brink’s realistically-detailed, highly-exaggerated characters. Great art direction, if you ask me. Shame we’ll now have to wait until next fall to see it in person.
Do you like free stuff? Of course you do. Sometimes you even take free stuff when you don’t want it, simply because it is free. A train whistle might be a good example of this. Well, if you’re in the mood to get something free that you may or may not want and you own a PSP then Sony has got a deal for you. To get people excited for the PSP’s digital comic store, which is landing next month, the company is giving away a free comic.
If you want to read an issues of Star Trek: Year Four – The Enterprise Experiment then boot up your PSP, download the digital comic reader, head into the Playstation Store and enter this code: 724K-A4BG-JLD7. Comic! In your hands. Done and done. Get to reading. If Star Trek ain’t your bag, baby, don’t fear. Sony will be handing out more free comics via the Playstation comics site and Twitter. It should also be pointed out that the Star Trek comic can only be downloaded for free until Dec. 16, which hints at when we might be seeing the comic store go live.
When I first heard that No More Heroes was coming to the PS3/360, I was totally shocked. Porting a two-year-old Wii game to HD consoles? It’s ludicrous, unheard of, and potentially brilliant. While I’m not totally convinced that NMH will be better for the swap between motion controls and HD graphics, I still want the game to sell well on the PS3/360. If this port goes on to outsell the 500,000-700,000 copies that the Wii original sold worldwide, I’d be ecstatic.
Now, before you going calling me a Wii-hating HD fanboy, hold your horses. Take another look at the title of this post. Look at a few of my other blogs. Though I’m not the biggest fan of Nintendo of America, the Wii is actually my favorite console of this generation so far.
So, if I like the Wii so much, why am I excited that NMH is “defecting” to high definition consoles? Well, because from where I stand, the success of the game on the PS3/360 could signal the final victory for the “Wii philosophy,” which is the reason I like the Wii so much in the first place.
Hit the jump and I’ll explain.
Okay, so what’s the “Wii philosophy” that I’m talking about? Well, from my perspective, it’s about four things — the four things that really separate the Wii from the PS3/360:
1) Motion controls (and the mainstream-accessible games that utilize them);
2) Low-priced console and games;
3) Personalized avatar creation;
4) Low-budget, “puck rock” games.
The PS3 and 360 have already adopted three out of four of these three ideas. Both the PS3 and the 360 will have motion controllers next year. Both have seen $200-$300 price drops since they first launched. Both have their own avatar creation systems. There’s just one part of the Wii’s appeal that they still lack.
Which brings us to No More Heroes.
The tale of No More Heroes is a rags-to-riches success story of one of the industry’s biggest outsiders, and of hardcore gaming on a console that many said was just for kids and old people. It also may be the pinnacle of modern “punk rock” gaming. By “punk,” I mean the combination of an intense enthusiasm for expressing ideas that overcomes any prioritization of profit. For instance, Blind Lemon Jefferson didn’t know that he’d ever become world-famous for singing on his porch about feeling miserable. The Ramones probably never guessed that four ugly guys with bad haircuts who can barely play their instruments would go on to be one of the most popular rock groups on the planet. NWA rapped about being “gangsta” long before anyone ever turned a profit from it. These are just three of the original “punk rockers.” These are the guys that put themselves out there with no reason to believe they could succeed, with little to no money to back them up. They didn’t do what they did because they thought they’d get rich and famous; they did it because they meant it.
For a game developer, it’s the same thing. To be punk rock, they have to be so overwhelmed with excitement over the game they’re working on that they can’t even see anything other than their creative vision. Developers with this attitude almost always make “flawed” games, but that’s usually because of the tunnel vision that comes from following your creative path with total abandon. The path also blinds you to whether what you’re doing is going to make you any money, or if you have the money to make the game in the first place. Ken Levine, Shigesato Itoi, Will Wright, Keita Takahashi, Tim Schafer, and, of course, Suda 51 are all examples of game developers that have made games under these conditions, and have at least one truly punk rock game under their belt.
For me, though, No More Heroes is the epitome of all that, at least for games in this “era.” Like The Ramones, No More Heroes isn’t going to win anyone over with its good looks. About half the time, No More Heroes looks like a Dreamcast game, something that is traditionally a guaranteed death sentence for sales (note: this was also true for actual Dreamcast games). No More Heroes also features an open world that is totally barren and uneventful, which works in stark contrast to the stuff found in big sellers like the GTA series. More so, No More Heroes stars one of the least conventional game protagonists of all time: a skinny, horny, lonely, videogame/anime-loving young man who lives with alone with his cat. The only messages on his answering machine are from mean-spirited employers, or the video store that he owes money to for un-returned porno tapes.
Couple all that with the amount of truly “inappropriate,” borderline insane content packed in the game, and you have a package that’s about as punk rock as it gets. I could get into detail, but I better stop myself now, as I could easily go on and on about the game for pages and pages. If you want to know more, though, check out one of the many well-written posts here on Dtoid that focus on the game. It’s really the kind of game that people like to write about just as much as they like to play.
So yeah, No More Heroes was one of the first, and best, punk rock games to hit the Wii. It has outsold other games with much higher budgets and bigger publishers (Dead Space Extraction and The Conduit, for example) without online play, mainstream-friendly controls, or proven successful tropes like zombies, World War II, or car theft. It also outsold every other game Suda 51 ever produced, including several games for the ever-popular PS1 and PS2. With the success of NMH came many other punk rock Wii exclusives: games like Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Mushroom Men, MadWorld, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, House of the Dead: Overkill, Little King’s Story, A Boy and His Blob, the Bit.Trip series, and many others. Some of them made money, and some of them didn’t, but that doesn’t even really matter. The point is that they still were permitted to come into existence, and that’s something that could have only happened on the Wii.
Sadly, the PS3/360 just don’t have as many games of this type in their console libraries. Metal Gear Solid 4 certainly has its moments, as do download-only titles like Noby Noby Boy, Castle Crashers and Braid, but even they are pretty conventional when compared to games like MadWorld and No More Heroes. PS3/360 games just cost a lot more to make than Wii games — by some reckoning, three to five times more. Publishers can’t take as many punk rock risks on the high-def consoles; one failed HD game could put them out of business. They have to play it safe by pleasing the lowest common denominator with space marines and Hollywood-style set pieces, or else they just won’t survive.
At least, that’s what I used to think before I saw screenshots of No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise on the PS3/360. The game has made me start to think that non-conventional, disc-based games might be able to make it in the HD world.
Though the game definitely isn’t a straight port, the changes made to the graphics surely look low-budget. Of course the jaggies are gone, and there seems to be a shiny filter on everything now, but both are probably due to work being done by the PS3/360 hardware, and they likely didn’t cost the developers anything extra to implement. Other than that, Travis’s coat now has real wrinkles, and… yeah, that’s it. That’s all I see for visual improvements in No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise — filters, resolution, and coat wrinkles. Coat wrinkles and resolution aside, I actually think No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle looks a little more expensive than No More Heroes HD. Just take a look at this comparison shot and see for yourself (in case you can’t tell, the Wii game is on the left) .
Thing is, that’s all good news. That’s a sign that a developer can make a game for the PS3/360 that essentially costs as much to make as a low-budget Wii game, and still still find a publisher for it (well, maybe). That’s a sign that not every PS3/360 game has to have online play or look like Uncharted 2 or Resident Evil 5 in order to get published.
That is, of course, if No More Heroes HD actually sells.
Best case scenario, No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise makes good money on the PS3/360, and developers think to make low-budget up-ports of other punk rock Wii games. These up-ports also make money, so from there, developers actually start making original punk rock games for the PS3/360. Not PSN/XLBA games, I’m talking about real retail games; games that aren’t about criminals/soldiers/space marines/strippers/bounty hunters. I’m talking about retail games that aren’t all firmly embedded in the uncanny valley. When was the last time you saw a game like that on the PS3/360? (And no, 3D Dot Heroes doesn’t count. Not until I play it, anyway.)
Sure, if punk rock gaming spreads across all consoles, the Wii console will be at a loss for the diminished number of exclusives. In the ways that count, that’s still a success for the console. It’s like they say in politics: winning the election is meaningless if you don’t get the other party to start doing things your way. To convert the PS3/360 into HD Wii clones is the real sign that the console has “won” the console war.” Sales are just a means to that end.
I have to indulge in a little narcissism right: not only did I get farther along in the second dungeon of Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks than any other journalist who previewed the game, I had all of Nintendo congratulate me on the achievement. I then proceeded to destroy them in the freshly announced multiplayer mode (except one round where I lost horribly, but we don’t talk about that.)
All in all, I came away as the best Zelda player in the universe, proving once and for all a college education is really going to change your life.
While I’m sure some of you are utterly fascinated with this information, I bet even more of you are interested in Spirit Tracks itself. After all, it is a freaking Zelda game, and it is coming out in less than three weeks. Any other year, and we’d all be crapping ourselves to get a hold of this game. After spending sometime with this little choo-choo that could, I think there’s going to be a whole lot to look forward with this game. Hit the jump to see our latest preview on Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
To be released: December 7, 2009
If you don’t know by now, Spirit Tracks takes place hundreds of years after Phantom Hourglass and Wind Waker. At the end of Phantom Hourglass, that Link and Tetra had left the waterworld of those games and set out to find a new continent to rule. And one they did find, a place they proceeded to rename Hyrule, never mind there is a whole new race of people called the Locomos, with their own culture and history..
Reminiscent of the ethnocentric colonialism of Western Culture, the actions of white skinned overlords of new Hyrule (descendents of Link and Tetra) are anything but, as they seem to have meshed with the Locomos culture pretty well. So far, Ganon seems to be AWOL, and the true villian is some dude named Mallaedus and his minion Chancellor Cole. The Locomos in olden times had locked away this jerk in the Tower of Spirits with chains across the land. These chains turned out to be the train tracks Link and Zelda will be traveling along. The short of it is Zelda gets split from her body, she teams up with Link, and they are sealing tracks back on the land to lock this guy away.
The important elements of this game is that Zelda has been made a disembodied specter, and you’ll be able to team up with her to control Phantoms to fight along with Link. You’ll control her with the stylus, much like the boomerang of Phantom Hourglass, only much slower. Link is still controlled with stylus control, and while some people hate it, it does get the job done.
Since I was playing an ice dungeon, the second in the game, I only had access to two separate items. The first was a new fan, a whirlwind device that players blow through the mic in the DS to activate. The boomerang was just like in Phantom Hourglass. While we’ve seen both tool types in Zelda games before, it’s guaranteed Nintendo has some neat stuff lined up for the dungeons. For example, the boomerang, when thrown through an ice flame, will freeze water to create temporary platforms for the non-swimming link. Or use the whirlwind device to blow Link across water. Like I said, it doesn’t seem to be radical Zelda stuff, but it should hopefully be a tight experience for those looking for traditional Zelda.
There’s even an instrument you have to use to impact the world. Nintendo has gone back to the woodwinds, as the instrument is you’ll be using is a Hyrulian Spirit Flute. It’s a Pan Flute you’ll have to blow into the mic to activate, and it seems like a fun take on typical Zelda instrumentation.
I didn’t get a chance to play the train portion of the game, although I did watch Bill Trinen guide me through. It looks to be a lot like the boat elements of Phantom Hourglass, just on rails. You’ll be shooting stuff with a cannon as you chug by, and you’ll have different speeds to blast through. Trinen promised that there will be a lot to do in this over world area, and considering the overworld elements of other Zelda games, there will be a lot of secrets here to uncover.
Finally, the most interesting and new elements of the game is the multiplayer. While local only, Spirit Tracks supports full single cart play, so you don’t need four people to own the game to get going. Fans of the Four Swords multiplayer Zelda games will like this multiplayer mode a lot, however, it is a bit different than that Gamecube game. There is nothing in the way of cooperation, so you will only be against each other. While, yes, you will be collecting Force Gems to come out on top, the actual versus mode feels really different. Link doesn’t even wield a sword in this mode. Rather, up to four Links will run around and throw bombs at each other to knock Force Gems out of each other. Complicating things are the Phantoms that will hunt you down to smack you, trap doors to throw out from under your opponents, and random power up that can really change the tide of battle.
For example, I was doing pretty poorly in one of the lava versus levels. With six to choose from, and each with different rules (expect invisibility, traps, lava, ice, etc.), things can get pretty hectic. Anyway, this level saw me falling into traps, tripping into lava, beaten by Phantoms, catching a face full of bomb, and rolling off ledges. I had almost no gems. Then, with 19 seconds, I grabbed a power up, became invincible, and proceeded to destroy the other players who happened to be grouped around. All in all, the multiplayer feels like the intense hectic fun of Mario Kart (think come-from-behind wins and power ups), Bomberman (throwing bombs in an arena and general ass-hattery) and Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (screwing over your buddies) all mashed up in one game. It’s all sorts of fun.
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks went from being a game I just didn’t care about to a game I want to play more. Sure, it’s almost a guaranteed thing, a Zelda game being good, but I haven’t wanted to keep playing a game during a demo session in a while. If you have nothing going on with your DS right now, keep an eye out for Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks December 7. It’s almost certainly to be worth your time.
Koei Tecmo has today announced Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce 2. The original PSP version is currently in the works for PS3 and Xbox 360, but that hasn’t stopped the almighty sequel masters from declaring a brand new one, scheduled for Spring 2010.
Shin Sangoku Musou Multi Raid 2, as it is known in Japan, shall release with an all-new story mode, new characters, a new weapon system and, most importantly, a crucial online mode. The lack of online is what let down the original co-op PSP title, which could have been the best DW game ever were it included.
This is good stuff. Strikeforce was a great shot in the arm of the hack n’ slash series, but it really needed to be able to go online. This should lead to a great game, if you like that sort of thing.
Along with the first in its series of “Hellbook” videos, THQ sent us a mess of information about the weapons and powers that will appear in the upcoming Darksiders.
From what we’re told, War will purchase weapons and upgrades by trading souls to Vulgrim, who will equip the horseman with Wrath powers. They all sound terrifying, too — Affliction, Blade Geyser, Immolation, and Stoneskin. I don’t know what any of that stuff means as far as the game is concerned, but my guess is that anything that steps in the way of War is basically f*cked. Well, at least that’s the plan.
Hit the jump for images of some of the gear that you’ll find in the game, along with fancy blurbs written by THQ.
“Death is not always a cacophony of death cries and armor-beating. Sometimes it is a muffled tchink…a silent pause…and a sharp point through the heart. The Abyssal Chain is a supernatural gauntlet forged to deliver such a fate. It fires a spearhead out of its engraved mouth with blinding speed, unspooling a chain behind it. This chain can be retracted to drag a dying foe to an even fouler fate. Or, it can pull the Chain and its master skyward to swing across the wastes.”
“The Voidwalker does what no mere weapon can: it opens a hole in reality itself. This arcane artifact seethes with energy, which can be fired through the veil of the universe. When two such perforations are made, dimensional space curves back upon itself—and the Voidwalker’s holes are connected. To step into one hole is to exit the other to a new location. Thus, the Voidwalker’s master can weave his way through the byzantine wastes, to access every bloody nook and corpse-filled cranny.”
“Shadow Flight manifests as ghostly demon wings. As they emerge and spread, the wings seize upon currents of air. Those who master Shadow Flight can soar to dizzying heights, there to discover certain artifacts and secrets–some of which are better left forgotten.”
“Even when silent, the Earthcaller appears to be screaming. Its mouth has been carved to resemble two demon faces twisted with rage. The horn is a powerful artifact, able to channel fury into raw sonic power, knocking back foes—and breaking spells of slumber. Far more than a weapon, the Horseman War will surely find use for the Earthcaller.
Jesus C*nting Christ! Despite there being roughly ten billion Sonic the Hedgehog compilations, it seems that Sega feels we can always have more, and has recently submitted Sonic Classic Collection to the OFLC for rating. This time, the blue blur will be reliving his long-lost glory days on the DS.
Sega has not officially announced the game yet, but we all know what to expect — a bunch of Genesis games we already own, flavored with the irony of Sega constantly re-releasing good Sonic games while being unable to make any decent new ones. It will probably lack anything new, interesting or rarely seen, and the only one worth replaying will be Sonic 2, which everybody already has eighteen copies of.
I can’t believe Sega is still able to make money doing this.
In the past, a good percentage of Xbox LIVE’s so-called deals have been pretty crummy. But for the rest of this month, the Deal of the Week promos are surprisingly good. Don’t believe it? Keep on reading, good sir.
Easily the weakest of the bunch is Fable II’s “See the Future” add-on, which of course is the first deal. Thanks for trying to make me look bad for trying to make you look good, guys! Brad wasn’t fond of the DLC, but if you think you might be, it’s going down to 400 MS Points on November 23.
Next up is Peggle for 400 Points and Death Tank for 800 Points — both sales are happening during the week of the 23rd as well. And finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 closes this month off on November 30 for the low, low price of 240 Points. Now that’s more like it.
Since it seemed like no one played Death Tank around the time of release, allow me to recommend that game. It’s like a real-time Scorched Earth, and fans of Worms will want to check it out for sure.
Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? It’s the best and probably only game featuring a sexy, busty Little Red Riding Hood as a gunner, gunning down all of history’s beloved storybook characters. Gretel, Santa, Granny, and even the Three Little Pigs aren’t the sweet characters that you remember, though. They’re huge, deformed, and angry, and are just asking to be blasted with your gun.
Hearing the premise is one thing, but seeing this game in action really lets you know what’s going on here.LRRHZBBQ uses both DS screens to form a vertical playing field. Enemy bosses reside at the top while you, Red, stay at the bottom, doing your best to avoid projectiles all while shooting to take said bosses down.
In our videos, you’ll see Red go up against both Gretel and Granny. Gretel has a beard for some reason. Granny looks green and horrible, and her dentures come out of her mouth as projectile fire. Of course they do. Later, in perfect horror movie form, possessed furniture flies around Granny’s head, and then flies at you. Finally, while obviously posessed, she barfs out reptilian forms to come and bite you. Again, of course.
So far, screenshots have done this game no justice. You have to see the videos. Check out both, in a special super tall format, after the jump.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at my credit card bills, but I have never been a member of GameFly. I have, however, racked up a bunch of meager transactions over the years whenever they try to pawn off their excess videogames with crazy sales.
Today is another one of those days where GameFly wants the garbage games out of its sight. Quite a few Xbox 360 and Wii titles were marked down to prices below $10, and hold on a second — some of them aren’t half bad. Heck, some are even good.
A few that caught my eye were Ninja Gaiden II, Mercenaries 2, Pure, and Far Cry 2. All of those are $9.99 shipped. And if drunken hobo fights bring you entertainment — they’re my specialty — Condemned 2 is worth grabbing at $6.99.
Remember these are pre-played games. With that said, out of the numerous purchases I have made from GameFly, not once have I had any issues crop up. I’d also urge fellow bargain hunters to look at their other wares; you’d be surprised how low these prices tend to be.
Yes, I do realize this post reads like an infomercial. Is my check in the mail, guys?