So, the new DS RPG from Square titled “Blood of Bahamut” (there is no Final Fantasy in the title, my bad on that one) has a brand spanking new trailer out for it. The comparisons to Shadow of the Colossus look to be correct, as the trailer pits 2D sprites against these enormous stone and moss beasts. I like the style of it, but I’m not sure what I think of the gameplay just yet. Still, it’s an interesting concept. What do you guys think?
Fallout 3 Versus Oblivion
So we are several weeks into the holiday season of video game releases, and no doubt many of you are already piled too high with games to play. Myself, I just finished Saint’s Row 2 over the weekend and have just jumped into Fable II as of yesterday. One game that I’m putting on hold so I can savor it in its entirety is Fallout 3, which has been good to me when I’ve had a chance to play it.
I know a lot of people are curious about how it stacks up against say, Oblivion, so CVG has put together a little article that stacks the two against each other head to head in terms of eye candy, combat, questing and the worlds that the games take place in. Looks like Oblivion wins, in their eyes. Definitely worth a look if you’re into either game.
Personally, it seems that Oblivion had way more interesting quests (dark brotherhood, wow), but Fallout 3’s story is very immersive, as is the world of the wasteland. What about you guys, what do you think?
Source- CVG
Bragging Rights: Pwning Call of Duty 4
Do you ever finish a game and don’t know what to play next? Man, I agonize over this sometimes. Should I go back and play some more Oblivion, but if I do will I not want to play Fallout 3 when I get it for Christmas? Do I want to finish Final Fantasy X-2 or find more prizes in Little Big Planet? When in doubt, I play Call of Duty 4.
Continue reading Bragging Rights: Pwning Call of Duty 4
Today’s WTF: The Great Solid Snake Escape
Video games teach us to do lots of things. Drive exotic cars, love exotic women and even jump on the heads of turtles. In the case of a 42 year old Turkish man in Germany, they taught him how to pull off a prison escape.
That’s right, a dude escaped from prison last week using a cardboard box. How very Metal Gear Solid of him. He hid inside of it and loaded himself into a cargo truck, which promptly drove him from the grounds, where he cut through the tarp and leaped to his freedom. This is both hilarious and scary, but I can’t help but laugh just a little on the inside. Dramatization below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJ9R0TU8-s[/youtube]
Source- Shacknews
Another Prince of Persia Story Trailer
Sigh. Another really cool trailer for Prince of Persia. I guess you can watch it and get happy or something. Me? I’ll just sulk because it means another $60 out of my pocket. Thanks video gaming. You rule like a kick in the nuts.
Valve Proves its BadAss-ness with Complete Pack
If you needed any further convincing, Valve has just confirmed that they are, in fact, complete and utter badasses. How did they do this? Well, first of all, by making some truly classic games, with a great track record. Second, for being the only gaming company that understands how its gamers want to use the Internet to buy things.
And lastly, the new Valve Complete Pack, which includes essentially every Valve game ever made, including Left 4 Dead and the Orange box, HL2, HL, CS, CSS, and all kinds of other things. How much does this cost you? $99. Seriously. It’s almost $140 in savings.
This is perfect for me because I actually don’t own the Orange Box and I was thinking about getting Left 4 Dead on the PC anyway. Anybody else going to hit Valve up on this?
Source- Steam
Final Fantasy: Blood of Bahamut for the DS
So the other day, a spooky but crazy epic Square countdown site launched, teasing gamers with an awesome looking shot of Bahamut over what looks like a colossus from Shadow of the Colossus. Oh, and the colossus has a city on its back.
While gamers speculated over what it was, it looks like the news has been broken by Jump Magazine in Japan. It is a teaser for a new Square game called Final Fantasy: Blood of Bahamut for the Nintendo DS. FF:BoB (as I’ve dubbed it) is a 4 player co-op action RPG game that has 2D sprites running against 3D backdrops. Which sounds incredible, by the way.
Even cooler? The premise has the characters living in the city perched atop the giant creature’s back. Only problem is, lots of other huge douches keep coming to attack your walking city. No fun. But I’m all for that. This game sounds terribly compelling and inventive. Anybody else excited?
Source- Nintendo DS Fanboy via Final Fantasy Union
Pitch Your Game: “For Real” Version
Last week, we ran the first edition of Pitch Your Game, our brand new GamerSushi feature where Anthony and I came up with the most absurd video game pitches we could think of, and pitted them against each other in mortal combat. It was Thunderdome meets a think tank.
This week, we go to the other side of the coin, where Anthony and I actually take serious pitches at game ideas that we think might need to be explored. At the end, you weigh in on which game you think you’d rather play.
Rumor: Subscription Based Gaming?
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time, but it looks like some developers are finally going after the bait that WoW has been dangling in front of them: subscription based gaming.
At a recent event, Take-Two (Bioshock, GTA IV) dude-in-chief Zelnick was heard to be talking up Blizzard’s business model, and how appealing it is for other developers. He even went as far as to talk about subscription based triple AAA titles with on-going transactions between the customer and the gaming studio. Basically, paying a monthly fee to play every game you own.
Well, that would just about ruin gaming. Ready to pay every month to play your copy of GTA IV or Bioshock? Because that’s probably where this discussion ends.
Call of Duty World at War Teases us with Jungles
Another trailer is out for Call of Duty: World at War, this one featuring sneaky foes hiding in secret jungles, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. This game released this week a little under the radar, considering how much hype was centered around it, but so far I’m only hearing great things. In particular, I hear the Pacific levels are wild and epic, with some huge clashes.
Has anyone played this? Tell us your thoughts!
Halo 3: Recon Details in New Game Informer
If you’re a Halo fan and a subscriber to the popular magazine Game Informer, then you’re going to be a very happy person this weekend. In the newest issue, there is a 10 page feature over Halo 3: Recon, due out in late 2009. While the article doesn’t have anything new in terms of gameplay or screenshots, it features tons of concept art, plus a few interesting details…
For one, Recon armor will be unlockable with all of the vidmaster achievements in Halo 3, so if you do those, yes, you can has. Second, Bungie doesn’t see Halo 3: Recon as a $60 game, especially considering that it’s an expansion pack that is about 5-6 hours long in terms of its single player campaign. This is exciting news, and I really wish more developers would follow suit on this.
Hopefully I’ll get my GI in the mail today or tomorrow, so I can provide some new details. Anybody else think this is cool, or are you just not that jazzed about Halo 3: Recon?
Source- HBO
Fallout 3 Scenes in GMod
Ah, silly GMod dudes. Mingebags, roleplayers, and the like. You always come up with the most creative stuff. In fact, you were Forge and LittleBigPlanet before there was Forge and LittleBigPlanet. Why, here’s an example of someone re-creating some scenes from Fallout 3 in G-Mod, complete with Megaton and even a little dancing hula lady. Shame it’s not faceposed, and the camera work is pretty bad, but it’s still quirky enough to get on my good side.
Left 4 Dead Demo Impressions
As many of us know, the Left 4 Dead demo dropped on XBox Live as well as Steam yesterday, sending gamers into a frenzy much akin to the virtual undead hordes that awaited bullet-pummeling. After a bit of a download time, I managed to nab the demo myself over XBL for the 360, and I couldn’t wait to get into my first game.
The thing that was curious to me from the menus and even once the game started was how much it felt like a game that belonged on the PC rather than the 360. Something about the controls, the HUD, the interface, everything about it screamed PC at me. Even hooking up with a party didn’t feel completely intuitive, though after a bit the matter was settled. So how was the gameplay?
White Knight Story Trailer Makes me Tingle
No, not the Tingle from the Zelda games. I mean tingle of the “my JRPG sense is tingling” sort. It’s been awhile since I’ve played a truly great JRPG, and White Knight Chronicles keeps tapping me lovingly in all the right places. The newest trailer is an epic montage of some of the story of the game, and while the graphics aren’t nearly as good as say, Last Remnant, I can’t help but watch and hope that this game is as awesome as it’s starting to look.
Anyone else wanting this game?
Saving Seconds on those 360 Load times with NXE
The New XBox Experience is going live to the masses, bringing with it a variety of cool features for the XBox 360, replacing the current dashboard with something new, shiny and more avatar-y. One of the more notable features (in addition to group chat, finally) will be the ability to install games directly from your 360 game disc to your HDD. The idea is that this will significantly cut down on load times.
But does it? BingeGamer has put together a nice little chart that details just how much time is saved on game loads. It’s actually interested to check out, especially if you own any of the games that they tested. Apparently, Halo 3 is actually SLOWER after the install, and Lost Odyssey seems to have the most improvement.
Overall, the seconds saved seems pretty miniscule (around 10 seconds on average) compared to the several gigabyte installs. I guess i won’t be using this feature too much, then. What do you guys think? Are load times unbearable for you? Are you excited about the NXE at all?
Source- BingeGamer
Wheel of Time MMO?
I’m not sure how many of you have ever read or attempted to read The Wheel of Time books by the late Robert Jordan. If you haven’t, you should know that they are a huge series of epic fantasy books, sometimes awesome, sometimes frustrating, but always long. They are now on book 11 out of 12, with the last being finished by a new author, since Jordan has passed on.
Well, in news that’s not so surprising, it looks like Red Eagle Entertainment has picked up the rights to do movies, TV shows, and even games based on the property. Quite frankly, I’m surprised this didn’t go down sooner, considering how many fans of the series there are out there.
What Ever Happened to Boss Battles?
After defeating the mighty Gears of War 2 this weekend, I was hit with a startling realization that I had heard repeated a few times before in its reviews- the ending boss was majorly lame. It was truly baffling. In this day and age, many of the blockbuster titles that we seem to play don’t have those uber boss battles that we used to know and love from when we were younger.
Calling All Pervivores- RPG Innuendoes
If you laugh at this, you are a perv. Go ahead, try not to laugh. This is a clip from a PS2 RPG called Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia that’s just begging for you to watch. Though be careful… there are some who might consider the material racy. But only if their mind is in a naughty place.
For the record, I lol’d. Muchly.
Rumor: Fable II Announcement Tease
Lionhead Studios are a crafty bunch of dudes. Also, they’re European, so you know that makes them of an extra wily sort. Plots, schemes, tricks and even hijinx are a part of their repertoire. Well, it seems that those devils are up to no good again, as they are now teasing about a HUGE Fable II announcement coming next week.
I mean, I’m not trying to be a cynic… but how huge could it be? In all likelihood, it’s DLC, so why should I poop my pants about it? Unless they’re giving you a code that unlocks 20 more hours of gameplay, I can’t see what the big deal is.
So what do you guys think the announcement is? Horse armor? A new patch? More wives?!
Source- Eurogamer
Left 4 Dead Goes Zombies on a Plane
We all want Left 4 Dead. Zombies and such. Well, part of the goodness that is L4D is the main campaign which can be played as 4 player co-op, or if you have no friends, by yourself. This campaign is split into 4 acts. So far, we only know that one is in the corn fields, one is in a hospital, and some new details have recently emerged about a third act, “Dead Air”, which takes place in an airport.
The dudes over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have meticulously constructed what they call a Photo Essay of this part of the campaign, spoiling everything and showing you all the details that you could possibly want to know about this great zombie shooter. Beware though, there are spoilers galore, especially considering that this is possibly the last act of the game.
The Left 4 Dead demo also drops on XBL today. Excited much?
Source- Rock, Paper, Shotgun