It’s not all of the time that box art is cause for a front page post. But there are a few things at play here with this F.E.A.R. 3 box art.
For one, it seems there’s not that much going on today in terms of gaming news and culture. We post upwards of 60 stories a day here, so trust me when I say that this is a difficult cycle to keep up with. But more importantly, it cements the fact that Warner Bros. and developer Day 1 Studios are serious about this “3″ as an “E” business. Yes, they’re going with F.3.A.R. here.
I’m not buying into it. Watch me be defiant: F.E.A.R. 3 is out this fall for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
It’s not all of the time that box art is cause for a front page post. But there are a few things at play here with this F.E.A.R. 3 box art.
For one, it seems there’s not that much going on today in terms of gaming news and culture. We post upwards of 60 stories a day here, so trust me when I say that this is a difficult cycle to keep up with. But more importantly, it cements the fact that Warner Bros. and developer Day 1 Studios are serious about this “3″ as an “E” business. Yes, they’re going with F.3.A.R. here.
I’m not buying into it. Watch me be defiant: F.E.A.R. 3 is out this fall for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
Ubisoft sure does love doing stuff on Facebook, as evinced by its recent cryptic messages found on the official Assassin’s Creed page on the social site.
“It is the time of our rising,” the message reads. “A new age enters and a great battle looms. Templar destiny is at hand and waiting for you. – Dr. Vidic.”
“What is this I don’t even” was my first response. But as some have pointed out, it may be a hint at the upcoming multiplayer episode of Assassin’s Creed II that Ubisoft has been talking about since earlier this year. E3: It’s only six weeks away. Cross your fingers that we’ll hear and see more than some mysterious babble on a Facebook page soon.
I do so love trawling Amazon for good deals, and this is a pretty enticing one.
While Jim might not have enjoyed Assassin’s Creed II, I certainly did. I loved all of The Truth puzzles, as they’re the sort of thing we almost never see in games, let alone a big-budget, AAA title that’s intended to have mass appeal. Not to mention the significantly improved mission variety.
At half the price, I feel confident in recommending that you pick it up. The markdown only applies to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 standard versions of the game. This is just one of Amazon’s random — and likely temporary — price drops with no idea when it arrived or when your time is up. Choose wisely.
Ubisoft sure does love doing stuff on Facebook, as evinced by its recent cryptic messages found on the official Assassin’s Creed page on the social site.
“It is the time of our rising,” the message reads. “A new age enters and a great battle looms. Templar destiny is at hand and waiting for you. – Dr. Vidic.”
“What is this I don’t even” was my first response. But as some have pointed out, it may be a hint at the upcoming multiplayer episode of Assassin’s Creed II that Ubisoft has been talking about since earlier this year. E3: It’s only six weeks away. Cross your fingers that we’ll hear and see more than some mysterious babble on a Facebook page soon.
I do so love trawling Amazon for good deals, and this is a pretty enticing one.
While Jim might not have enjoyed Assassin’s Creed II, I certainly did. I loved all of The Truth puzzles, as they’re the sort of thing we almost never see in games, let alone a big-budget, AAA title that’s intended to have mass appeal. Not to mention the significantly improved mission variety.
At half the price, I feel confident in recommending that you pick it up. The markdown only applies to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 standard versions of the game. This is just one of Amazon’s random — and likely temporary — price drops with no idea when it arrived or when your time is up. Choose wisely.
The Earth is uninhabitable, and human civilization survives only around and within a gigantic clockwork tower, Basel. The age and origins of Basel itself are a mystery, but everyone knows that the tower is slowly beginning to malfunction and wear down. The story follows the exploits of Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne, who live in Ebel City, on Basel’s fourth level. Working as mercenaries, they run errands and do odd jobs for the Cardinals, a group of eccentrics living at the highest levels of Basel society.
That’s about as far as Resonance of Fate goes with regards to opening premise. There is no imminent threat or world-ending crisis to be averted. Instead, everyone’s just focused on getting by in a world that’s slowly decaying.
The opening chapters deal quite literally in a series of fetch quests, with the trio picking up one mundane object or another and trucking it over to the local noble’s estate. Of course, things are never quite as they seem. For example, task to bring a bottle of wine from the icebox turns out to be a dangerous trek through portion of Basel frozen over by a dilapidated cooling system.
The languid pacing and the attitude that nothing is ever exactly as it seems permeates the whole game. Early on, the cast conforms to the expected anime archetypes. Vashyron’s the hornball war veteran, Zephyr’s the sullen teenager, and Leanne is the peppy girl. But each successive chapter builds a little bit on the characters’ pasts and personalities, presenting questions for the player to wonder about as the story ambles along. Why did Leanne try to commit suicide in the opening FMV? How was Vashyron involved in a conflict that blew up the town of Lucia on level six? How did they all meet in the first place? And so on.
Resonance of Fate builds its world mostly through inference and implication rather than exposition. Things get more “serious” in tone into the latter half of the game, but with the main plot being somewhat threadbare, it never really ascends to the kind of epic scale one would expect from the genre. In fact, some core elements are spoiled during the main menu FMVs, so be warned if you want to idle on those screens while you settle into your chair or something. On the other hand, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it all balances out in the end. Cartoonish slapstick gags punctuate and help defuse some of the melodrama that would otherwise risk making character development tiresome. There’s even a Christmas chapter!
Look, I know many of you didn’t understand what it is that I just wrote. Honestly, after the translation, I didn’t either (I speak French, oui oui!), but what I’m trying to get at is that there is a brand new game coming out developed by a Mexican, Spanish speaking studio, published by a Japanese company, and focused on the Spanish-speaking market in America. It really is a new precedence, one that is interesting to see how a new, bilingual gaming audience could be born.
Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring is, quite simply, a lucha libre wrestling game. Based upon the incredibly popular Mexican wrestling, this style of wrestling is as over the top as the American counterpart, but is studded with even more outlandish personalities, sometimes more violent wrestling skills, and the sacramental respect for the mask, the ever famous disguise almost all luchadors. Lucha libre has a minor following in the English speaking market as more of a novelty, but for Spanish speaking immigrants and people all across latin america, the luchadors can reach major heights of fame.
Now, my hands-on with Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring didn’t exactly show me something extremely new with the gameplay. Coming to every console available, with the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and DSiWare all receiving versions. I checked out the PS3 and Xbox 360 version, and I can make this claim: it is a wrestling game, and to know if it is better than the rest would take more hands-on time. However, good old wrestling favorites, like a create-a-character mode, a 25 part story mode, online play, and up to four players all mean that the good old standbys of wrestling games will be here.
Thankfully, the development studio behind the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, Immersion Games, is a studio based in Mexico, and everyone involved, from the CEO to younger brothers of the PR (yep, they were there) had an obvious glee and love of lucha libre. It is clear these guys love the sport.
Core elements of lucha libre will make an appearance. First of all, the masks (and the famous men behind them) are making a strong appearance. There are dudes like La Parka and other legends of the ring will be making an appearance. Also, the elements of the mask will be coming, so Mask and Hair matches will be coming. Huh? Well these matches are matches where the mask and a wrestler’s hair is on the line. If a wrestler losses a match, he’ll have to show his mask or shave his head. In luchador culture, this could be an end of a career, and these sort of matches will be available for online matches. Unfortunately, the legendary wrestlers will not be allowed to do this on these online matches, as you don’t want to ruin those guy’s careers.
Other luchador elements to make an appearance in the game is the element of popularity. Each wrestler has a few special moves and one super move that they need to fill a meter before that they can use. Popularity means that if the crowd likes you, you can pull all these elements off, and so taunting your opponent, or, uh, sexily enticing all the women in the crowd, will fill up your meter and allow you to pull off these moves. There are some locks placed on these super moves for realism (pull off a special move, and your meter will literally frost over for a while), and this is designed to make entertaining matches.
Finally, even language has been designed to appeal to the Spanish speaking audience. With only a language switch of your game settings, the entire game can be done with either English or in Spanish. Yes, all the announcers are famous Spanish (or less famous English) luchador announcers. This is actually pretty cool, as hearing everything done in Spanish was a nice change of things. For a game appealing to a certain cultural group, it is nice to see the developers go all the way.
I for one have always been interested in seeing how games designed for the Spanish language market would do in the United States, and why such games have never really existed. That is why Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring is so interesting, as the focus on a cultural group in America that is normally ignored is really neat to see. The developers are confidant. One representative said “We already know we will have great success” and the team is really looking forward to strong word of mouth. For those who like wrestling, and those who just want to see something different, Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring looks like it might just offer that.
| It’s a case of handbags at dawn as two Japanese RPG developers got involved in a little verbal jousting over Mistwalker’s upcoming Wii game, The Last Story. Mistwalker boss and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was mocked by Final Fantasy Gaiden director Takashi Tokida for “rehashing” the very series he built. While most likely in jest, Sakaguchi still took the opportunity to justify his game.
The debate started when Tokida asked Sakaguchi, “How about stopping with the Final Fantasy rehashes?” The accusations were carried on in a more serious tone by a simple fan, who stated that he felt The Last Story did indeed look like it was just recreating Square Enix’s franchise.
“I think you’ll feel this once you’ve tried it. LS is not a rehash,” stated the Mistwalker chief, defending his game.
Considering we haven’t really seen anything of The Last Story yet, outside of some artwork and plot details, it’s a little early to make accusations. I think most of the “rehash” comments come simply from the fact that it’s called The Last Story, which of course sounds very similar to Final Fantasy. Just goes to show you how easy it is to influence perception with a few simple words. |
Yesterday, Nintendo of America set up a hype page for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The page listed a bunch of features, including online leaderboards and a widescreen format. The most interesting thing was the fact that Sonic 4 was boasting a “full HD resolution,” despite the fact that the Wii doesn’t output in HD.
We wondered what that meant, and so did our readers. Some had assumed it would upscale to 720p with third party hardware. Someone pointed out that previous Wii title Muramasa was developed in HD and scaled down to fit the Wii. We contacted Sega using JOURNALISM to find out the truth of the matter, and have now gotten an explanation.
It was a mistake.
Yep, a simple screw up on the part of Nintendo’s Web monkeys. Sonic 4 on WiiWare will not feature any HD shenanigans, and Sega is having that particular note removed from the page. Sorry guys, but Sega has not found a way to upscale downloadable games nor has it employed sorcery. Still, it looks pretty decent on the Wii regardless, so that’s something at least.
Yesterday, Nintendo of America set up a hype page for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. The page listed a bunch of features, including online leaderboards and a widescreen format. The most interesting thing was the fact that Sonic 4 was boasting a “full HD resolution,” despite the fact that the Wii doesn’t output in HD.
We wondered what that meant, and so did our readers. Some had assumed it would upscale to 720p with third party hardware. Someone pointed out that previous Wii title Muramasa was developed in HD and scaled down to fit the Wii. We contacted Sega using JOURNALISM to find out the truth of the matter, and have now gotten an explanation.
It was a mistake.
Yep, a simple screw up on the part of Nintendo’s Web monkeys. Sonic 4 on WiiWare will not feature any HD shenanigans, and Sega is having that particular note removed from the page. Sorry guys, but Sega has not found a way to upscale downloadable games nor has it employed sorcery. Still, it looks pretty decent on the Wii regardless, so that’s something at least.
Here, all camera cuts occur in real time, so each new angle you see flows directly into the next one. For example, if I hit a home run, the camera will follow the ball into the stands. Next, it might show some raucous fans celebrating, and then switch to a shot of the dejected pitcher who served up the long ball. Alex Rodriguez will probably be in the shot, since he’ll be rounding second base behind the pitcher. Finally, the camera might show the entire field, which is when the infielders can be seen shifting to the right side of the diamond in preparation for the next batter, Mark Teixeira. This is the kind of attention to detail that Sony San Diego is known and loved for — it seems minor, but makes MLB 10 stand out.
Other visual additions in MLB 10 include dynamic fans and off-field players: fans seated in the front row will reach over the railing to try and grab a foul ball, and players in the dugout will duck to avoid balls hit in their direction. You’ll even see pitchers warming up in real time after you put them in the bullpen. And the developers finally addressed a longtime gripe of mine — collision detection. It’s still not perfect, but at least it’s not completely absent like in years past.
Unfortunately, the audio side of the TV equation is less impressive. While the ambient ballpark noises are wonderful — and if you’re not happy with them, you can augment them yourself in Sounds of the Show — the commentary trio of Matt Vasgersian, Rex Hudler, and Dave Campbell remains the only unremarkable, mediocre aspect of the presentation. Hudler and Campbell, in particular, repeat lines too often — and some of their tired old sayings haven’t changed in years.
Of course, you can turn them off and focus on the game itself, which is still stellar. New features include a more granular throw meter and three different kinds of pickoffs, and although the pitcher/batter confrontation itself hasn’t changed, it would be silly to criticize Sony San Diego for opting not to tinker with something that works perfectly as-is. What’s so great about The Show is the way in which players behave: baserunners hop over ground balls, outfielders crash into the wall after catching deep fly balls on the run, and double-play-turning infielders tumble over runners sliding into them at second base. Thanks to better animation blending, the on-the-field action exhibits a fluidity that has to be seen to be believed.
It’s a shame, then, that the most impressive aspects of MLB 10 simply evaporate when playing the game online. The Show has been continually held back from true greatness by its sub-par online play, and sadly, it’s no better this time around. I played ten or so games, most of which ended prematurely when the player on the other end quit due to pervasive, crippling lag. Perhaps it’s my wireless connection, but for what it’s worth, I haven’t had issues with any game besides The Show (both MLB 09 and MLB 10).
Lag can ruin any online game, but it’s particularly disastrous in baseball, where a mere split second can mean the difference between a home run and a very long out. The terrible lag causes hitters to flail wildly at pitches whose journeys to home plate have gaps, and it makes it tremendously difficult to properly locate pitches because the pitching meter — which is completely timing-based — stutters. What’s more, the initial indication of your connection to your opponent, which shows up in the team select screen, doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the actual quality of a game. Every game I played online had an ostensibly “great” connection — according to the team select banner — but the in-game display was rarely green (“great”), instead fluctuating between yellow and red.
In fact, the awful lag compromises the entire online play experience. Strange visual glitches — which are nowhere to be seen in the offline game — pop up online. I saw my first baseman fail to stick out his glove to catch a ball thrown to him, but he managed to catch it anyway before the hitter got to first — which somehow ended up in a “safe” call at the bag. In addition, either the X button magically becomes much less responsive online, or check swings are just nearly impossible to pull off over the Internet. I’m also miffed that Sony San Diego hasn’t yet integrated the PlayStation Network friends list into the game; instead, you have to add your PSN friends to a separate in-game buddy list. Perhaps it’s an issue with the way the PSN itself is set up as opposed to something the developers have any control over.
We already know how Yakuza 3 is blatantly better than Final Fantasy XIII, but it turns out that it could have been even more blatantly better, because some folks have reported that SEGA cut much more content out of the game than was originally revealed.
It wasn’t just the hostess bars and the obscure history trivia minigame that were cut out, it seems that the mahjong, shogi, “loser song” minigames were axed, as well as dozens of side quests. Estimates are placed at about 13% of the content available in the game’s first 6 chapters were absent from the English version of Yakuza 3.
And it’s not just a problem of most players not knowing what they’ll miss. Many of those sidequests are worth experience and cashed used to buy upgrades and items, potentially making the game more difficult or grind-heavy.
I don’t really understand why they had to go and do this. Why were they concerned about releasing the game ASAP? Were they in that much of a hurry to get steamrolled by Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III? And it’s not as if cutting content suddenly makes an already very Japanese game more appealing to western audiences. After all, it was the constant whining by Japanophiles like myself that convinced them to bring the game over in the first place. Sega’s continuing inability to properly gauge its audience is maddening.
All that said, I’m just glad Yakuza 3 is happening at all. There’s plenty more content available to play, even with the cuts, and I encourage everyone who’s interested to take the plunge. If nothing else, you’ll get a good game, and Sega might be convinced to bring Yakuza 4 over in a more complete state.
Destructoid and GameStop have teamed up for three weeks of God of War III giveaways! GameStop is currently holding their own contest called “Be the Envy of the Gods” where over 2,000 prizes are being given away until March 15. Along with the daily prizes, they’re doing some weekly promotions and this week’s GameStop contest is a VIP Experience at a premier music festival.
Back here on Destructoid, we’re giving away God of War III, $50 GameStop gift cards and something big during the third week of this contest series thanks to GameStop. This week’s prizes are as follows:
* First place: God of War III and a $50 GameStop gift card.
* Second place: God of War Collection.
* Third place: $50 GameStop gift card.
Simply leave a comment below telling us about your best concert experience you’ve ever had or tell us what music festival you’re looking forward to the most this year. One entry per person and contest is open to US residents only. You have until Sunday, February 28th at 11:59PM CST to enter. Good luck!
Destructoid and GameStop have teamed up for three weeks of God of War III giveaways! GameStop is currently holding their own contest called “Be the Envy of the Gods” where over 2,000 prizes are being given away until March 15. Along with the daily prizes, they’re doing some weekly promotions and this week’s GameStop contest is a VIP Experience at a premier music festival.
Back here on Destructoid, we’re giving away God of War III, $50 GameStop gift cards and something big during the third week of this contest series thanks to GameStop. This week’s prizes are as follows:
* First place: God of War III and a $50 GameStop gift card.
* Second place: God of War Collection.
* Third place: $50 GameStop gift card.
Simply leave a comment below telling us about your best concert experience you’ve ever had or tell us what music festival you’re looking forward to the most this year. One entry per person and contest is open to US residents only. You have until Sunday, February 28th at 11:59PM CST to enter. Good luck!
The last time there was talk of Warren Spector’s Epic Mickey on any other console than Wii, that talk was mercilessly put down. Because of the motion controls, the Wii was the only system considered for Mickey’s painting chicanery. However, with Natal and the Sony Wiimote hovering on the horizon, plans may change.
“The key mechanic is an ink and paint mechanic,” says Disney’s Graham Hopper. ”We have a very large audience base that has Wiis in their home … that’s not to say that we won’t go to other platforms. If we started it 6 months ago we would have potentially thought differently about it.”
As with most Wii games that sport a great artistic look, I can’t help but lament the lack of HD graphics and do hope we’ll see the game on bigger systems. As for right now, Epic Mickey is still a Wii exclusive, but there’s a good bit of hope for the future.