Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Visiting Empire City

I picked up inFamous today, played around with it a little bit.  I'm really digging the game.  It starts off with a bang, literally, and the first few missions don't make you feel like a little peon doing everyone's bidding.  Instead, you feel like you have something important, that even the smallest thing will help clean up the city.  Obviously, I'm going the good karma route, trying to help everyone I can.  They sure need it.  This place is a wreck.  Next year, I'm going to Hawaii on vacation.

Friday, May 22, 2009

High Praise for inFamous

Wierd spelling aside, inFamous seems to be everything it was cracked up to be. Every review I've read of the game has been glowing.

ArsTechnica says "There is something about inFamous that's decidedly adult and satisfying, and not in the "OMG BOOBIES" way. This is a what-if story about a city with no hope and a man who has been taken out of his life to do something about it. An absolute must-buy."

1up states "Sucker Punch has created a finely-crafted mashup of superheroes, Sly Cooper, open-world gameplay, morality, and lightning in InFamous."

Gamespot sums it up: "Incredible freedom of movement, intense combat, and an enthralling story make Infamous an impressive open-world action game."

I've kind of gotten a lot of games lately, but this one is probably another one I'd like to pick up. I love the appeal of a game where you are in the midst of a crisis and have the ability to restore life to a nearly lost city. Sounds like a blast!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Self-rightous PC Gamer; or, I Love Funny Charts


I giggled endlessly at this pic:


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Fun with Punch-Out!!

Picked up a copy of Punch-Out!! today, and wow it's fun.  Great to see all the old characters back in a fresh new style.  Really does service to my childhood memories.  Unlike some endeavers out there -- I'm looking at you G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.

Completed the Minor Circuit, but it gets more challenging from there.  The game really is great action, with crisp controls and great gameplay elements.  Each different boxer feels complicated and deep, with different moves that keep you guessing.  The sound and visuals are perfect, a great cartoon style.  This game is everything I hoped it would be!

Entire Valve Staff Fired Due to Video Leak

As it turns out, the Meet The Spy video was leaked without permission, and as a result, the entire Valve staff has been fired.  So...  I guess Valve is hiring!

Lots more on their blog, starting here.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Early Punch-Out!! Reviews

"So, yeah. Not only is Punch Out!! worth the 50 bucks, but lands on a very short list of Wii games I feel that way about. Even better, while Punch Out!! makes for an entertaining enough solitary experience, the back-seat driving aspect makes it positively shine as a party game. There's nothing quite like having a few friends over, passing the controller around, shouting advice, and just generally bonding over some hilarious, bloodless violence."  -- From 1up

"Punch-Out!! on the Wii is a fantastic recreation of the NES original and retains every element that makes the game one hell of a challenge and insanely addictive." -- From IGN

Early reviews are overwhelming positive. I've got to go out and get my copy!

The Conduit Multiplayer Preview

More information is available regarding The Conduit, with some gameplay and info from the project's lead producer about the multiplay features in the game.  Looks like fun fast arcade FPS action with a variety of game types.  Hopefully Wii Speak and friend-codeless play will make for an easier online experience.  Now, as long as the network performance is sufficient, this should be a lot of fun.

Double the Fun in Vloxen

Zoldark the Unholy is always an enjoyable punching bag. Can you feel bad about laying waste to zombie masters? But this dungeon run was especially fun because Zoldark was one of the Zaishen Bounties, so besides the reward from the dungeon, we also got the reward from the Zaishen. Nice!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Meet the Spy Video

Another Meet The... video, this time "leaked" overnight by the feature of the film. Quite a bit of violence in the video, but that's to be expected.



Diabolical!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sniper and Spy Updates for Team Fortress 2

Development continues on TF2, now like eighty years after it's been released. I'd be upset if I bought it on PS3 or 360.

But for us PC players, the sniper and spy are getting class updates, following the updates for medic, heavy, pyro, and scout classes. Pretty soon they'll actually have done all the classes, and they'll have to move on to another game or something.

Sniper and spy details can be viewed here.

Mass Effect 2 Info Trickling Out

It's been a couple months since the original Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer came out, and since E3 is imminent, there's even more information now starting to come to light.

A new video surfaced with some gameplay details, and the Kotaku crew are pretty excited about it. Mass Effect was so incredibly fun, and if they can expand on the universe, clean up some of the control issues, and establish a greater amount open-world options, the result could be astonishing.

Expect more information as E3 2009 gets into full swing starting June 2.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Chinatown Wars Story Mode: Complete?

...Or is it?

I think I completed the story mode in Chinatown Wars. At least the ending credits played. But I know there are still missions to do. I know this because there is an empty portrait in one of the best new features in Chinatown Wars: the mission replay white board.

In each of your safe houses you purchase or otherwise acquire hosts a white board. On it are collections of sticky notes, one for each story mode mission. You can replay the missions on the board against a timer, trying to beat your score and relive the events of the story. I really wish GTA IV had such a feature -- I'd just play the bank heist endlessly. I need to replay the game just to get a save point right before it...

Anyway, although in Chinatown Wars I reached the end credits, there's still an empty portrait, making me think there's still something left to do. Have to look around a little and see. But it was a great ending to the story, perfectly befitting a crime drama. Plus it was hilarious.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Guild Wars Zaishen Challenges

I've been playing Guild Wars lightly again, mostly pursuing the Zaishen Challenges. Not to be confused with the challenge mission itself, Zaishen Challenges are threefold: Bounties, Missions, and Combats. Bounties are rewards for taking out specified bosses. Missions are rewards for completing story missions in any of the four Guild Wars campaigns. Finally, Combats are rewards for PvP actions, such as guild battles, Heroes' Ascent, or competitive missions. Aside from gold, faction, and experience rewards, one may be awarded Zaishen coins, used for all sorts of rewards, including the newequipment packs, a new slot to situation a pack that can hold armor or weapons. The challenges have been fun, since it's a good reason to go back and do old content for enhanced rewards, or to try stuff over in hard mode, since you get more coins that way.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

More Gangland Violence in the Palm of Your Hand

I keep having tons of fun with GTA: Chinatown Wars.  The game had been proceeding slowly at first, doing some delivery missions here and there, maybe doing some intimidation or stealing merchandise.  Made fifty grand dealing smack, which was useful to buy more arms and property.  However, I graduated to the big leagues last night!

Finally got a massive mission to sink my teeth into. I had to get into a rival gang's base, set charges to weaken the overall structure and finally blow the place apart. Obviously, they were unhappy about my activities and attempted to stop my progress. However, my M4 was wielded too well! I planted my charges and dove off the dock into the bay, making my escape on a small boat. I'm on a boat *%!*%$ don't you ever forget!

Not sure how much I've got to go in the game, but I can feel like I'm closing in on an ending. Hope there are a few more bit set-piece story missions to romp around in before it closes up. Guess I'll have to do some of the vigilante and noodle runs to draw it out. Already did the firefighter missions so I could become a Flame Retard and fireproof!

Hah, Lies.

Read today on Kotaku that Gran Turismo is supposed to have realistic damage modeling. One of the biggest criticisms of the series is that for a "realistic racing simulation" it's awfully unrealistic to slam into a wall doing 150 MPH and bounce off. Really ruins the whole simulation feel. I for one really don't care that much, but apparently people are really into this realism thing. We'll see if this feature really comes around, since the devs have been talking about this for ages. Who knows! We might even see GT5 this decade.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Demigod Updates Continue

We've all been reading about the network problems experienced by the users of Demigod -- even experienced by ourselves! But new updates are coming out this week that should fix the problem. Stardock officials have something to say. I've been running the .0108 beta, and it seems to be better, although I haven't had the massive problems others have.

Although it wasn't working great out of the gate, at least it shows the devs are working hard on it. More importantly, they're really wanting to make online multiplayer exciting and available for everyone. And that bodes well for the future of the game.