Originally dated to release in Winter of this year, Atlus’ Catherine has been delayed till February of 2011. The team that’s responsible for the Persona series have been working diligently to get this game out to the fans out in Japan. Catherine has been spoken about vastly throughout Japan and even North America, and now that there’s a delay in the release date, this may push the release window for North America to a later date. With the later planned date, it gives everyone a bit more time to ponder how the game play will be, and what the story is about, but keep checking back as we’ll keep you updated about everything we hear about the infamous Catherine.
Christine Delayed in Japan
Update: Demon Hunter Final Class Announced in Diablo 3
Blizzard announced today that Demon Hunter will be the final character class in Diablo 3. The Demon Hunter class seems to be a ranged attack class specializing in grouping and crowd control.
- Fan of Knives: shoots daggers in a 360 degree area around the hunter.
- Molten Arrow: shoots a flaming arrow in a straight direction passing through enemies in its path.
- Grenades: a group of three grenades are thrown each time, each with their own destructive blast area.
- Bola: an explosive sling that’s thrown into enemies, after a few seconds the bola explodes.
- Entangling Shot: a magic arrow shot into enemies that tether and snare surrounding the target.
More information on the Demon Hunter can be found here.
Comic Jumper Review
If someone would have told us a couple of years ago that there would be a market for downloadable games in today’s major consoles, we wouldn’t have believed it. Twisted Pixel’s have been paving the way and making a name for themselves in the downloadable games scene in such a short run. Their third game Comic Jumper has finally arrived for Xbox Live Arcade and let us tell you it has as much spirit from the team as the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. While their last game Splosion man focused on multiplayer gameplay, the focus here is on a single player experience but does not disappoint.
Comic Jumper sets you on the misadventures of Captain Smiley, a canceled comic book hero who’s path is to reclaim his former glory. To do so he will have to earn enough money to regain his series back and the only way is by guest starring in other troubled comic books. With the help or further endangerment of his sidekick Star on his chest he will need to succeed in those comic books to rebuild his reputation. Some of the comics you encounter include a Conan Barbarian lookalike, a manga comic and a Silver Age book from the 1960’s. Each comic has its own feel for the time and setting of which its under while Captain Smiley takes on the art style for each as well.
Different gameplay elements make up the world of Comic Jumper. One moment will have you shooting at enemies side scrolling like Gunstar Heroes, another on a golf cart jumping over other carters and another can have you do quick time button actions while pummeling baddies. At its core it is a shooter but it’s nice to see different styles approached. Your weapons change with the style of each comic which is a nice touch and by far this is the only game I’ve played that has special moves involving the dev team itself that can’t be missed. Bonus money can be awarded by completing certain challenges that come up during gameplay in a comic (mostly involving players not taking damage for set period). What’s great is that the money earned from comics can be used to power Captain Smiley’s different attributes or purchase item unlockable’s within the command center.
The voice work for this game is outstanding and sets the tone for your entire adventure. Not everyone will enjoy all the humor the same as some can be seen as kind of offensive but they are mocking moments in time where media entertainment weren’t culturally sensitive. The sound work can be praised as well for having a great soundtrack which includes the Stat Monitor song (my personal favorite) along with theme’d character music and sound effects suiting each comic book your in.
While the game is fun to play and has light hearted humor, it is by no means easy. It is reminiscence of 2d side scrolling nes/snes games where one won’t realize the amount of twitch decisions that have to be made when the screen becomes full of enemies. Expect to die a number of times on certain scenes before completion or earning the extra bonus cash from challenges.
Comic Jumper has everything you need in a downloadable game and some. Other developers should take note of what Twisted Pixel’s bring to the table. This game may not be your run in the mill cake walk but with humor, great gameplay, sound work and enough to make you want more, its hard not to recommend this. For 1500 MS Points on XBLA its well worth it, now If you will excuse me I am going to check my stats to hear that song again.
Overall Score = 8.6
DJ Hero 2 Party Bundle Quick Unboxing
DJ Hero 2 has already released in stores but for those who don’t know what it might contain, I compiled a video to show you. Take note that this is the party bundle set which includes two turntable controllers, a microphone and DJ Hero 2 the video game. Apologies for the low lighting but this is only a quick unboxing, stay tuned for more of these in the future.
NBA Jam Inbound
EA has announced a release date for the updated NBA Jam series for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Although already released for the Wii, NBA Jam will hit retail stores on November 17 the retail edition of the game. I think this calls for a boom shaka laka don’t you agree?
PowerUp Rewards at Gamestop
GameStop has finally announced that it’s rewards programs PowerUp Rewards and PowerUp Pro, is now available all over the country. The rewards program that gives loyal customers redeemable points towards Netflix, Xbox Live subscriptions, and gift cards. With a $15 subscription per year for the pro, subscribers also receive discounts on pre-owned games, and a full year subscription to Game Informer among other benefits.
Angry Birds Holloween Edition
The pigs are getting festive this holiday season and birds are joining in as well. Out October 21st, the Halloween edition of Angry Birds will hit he app store for $.99 and HD for $1.99 for iPhone and iPad. The special Halloween edition will have 45 new levels with new music to go with it, and whats a special Halloween edition with out pumkins? Unfortunately Android users will not be getting this version of Angry Birds, it could be a gift or a curse depending on how addicted you’ve been to the game.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow Review
Whenever I hear Castlevania being mentioned, a couple of things come to mind, whips, hearts, creatures of the night, and 2D platforming. The thought of a Castlevania game being in 3D hasn’t lived up to its name so far. The previous games that were done in 3D were for the Nintendo 64, the games were a little difficult to play since the frame rates tended to drop, creating some stuttering, but the game play was great. The team at Konami, with the help of Hideo Kojima, are breathing new life into the franchise with Lords of Shadow, and honestly the game didn’t disappoint in any aspects.
In Lords of Shadow you play Gabriel Belmont, one of the many from the bloodline of Belmonts who have dedicated their lives to destroying the creatures that go bump in the night. Gabriel’s quest is to find an ancient relic called the God Mask, that has the ability to revive the dead, what’s so important abut this you ask? Well the best reason for any good game hero to revive the dead would be to bring back a loved one. To get the relic Gabriel must collect a total of three pieces from the three dark lords. The dark lords being spread out in three different areas being the lycan, vampire, and necromancer regions.
The combat system in LoS is reminiscent of God of War. A whip with chain links flash across the sc犀利士
reen as it snaps into multiple enemies giving you the blood lust from the beauty of monster. Attacks range from short and powerful to wide and somewhat weak. The choice of weapons revolve around vampire hunting, throwing daggers, holy water, and dark crystals for magic attacks. The enjoyable part of combat comes in the form of unlocking more techniques with the whip, holy magic and dark magic powers. The constant attacks may seem a bit draining and eventually may become boring, but involve short interactive cut scenes that require you to pay attention at all times during the screen. An Addition to the combat system is a mount system. Certain large enemies such as spiders, wargs, and large boars can be mounted after a certain amount of health is taken away from them. Not only are you able to attack while riding each mount, but sometimes are required to use them to continue on the path of the game, even though they are only used for possibly a short amount of time.
level load times are noticeable but a narration of the events that occur between levels help with such long waits, especially since it’s by Patrick Stewart or better known as Captain Jean Luc Picard. Another smart way to break up the strain of battle were puzzles in the game. Just like GoW, there are multiple puzzles that require some thinking, and a lot of trial and error. If you aren’t good at puzzles or are just in it for the action, you don’t have to worry, close by the puzzles are scrolls explaining what the puzzle entail and the story of the fallen soldier. Each puzzle scroll also gives the option of automatically solving it for a small amount of credits, although most of the time your credits don’t need to be wasted since the puzzles are quite easy to solve. The gameplay for LoS is fast, challenging, and visually stunning but there are some hiccups. Unfortunately with an uncontrollable camera, certain areas on the map can be hidden and you may miss vital items, meaning lots of back tracking and replaying levels over and over again. Some would say the game plays to much like GOW and not enough like Castlevania since not much castles were seen? One or two glitches that I ran into during the entire game actually needed me to restart the level as well but this was far and in between.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow was a great game to play. Expect to die a lot and get frustrated, but that’s part of the game. I’m sure you’ll be caught off guard since health is either gained my holy magic or one of the rare health fountains that are spread out in the game. The game racks up about 15 game hours and possibly even more if you want to go back to find all the hidden items and upgrades. This game was a surprising experience for us both visually and gameplay wise. The future of series looks very promising and the transition to next gen territories has not disappointed in this title.
[starreviewmulti id=2 tpl=20]
Overall = 8.6
Xbox.com Getting Facelift
Tomorrow Microsoft gives Xbox.com a facelift and some extra functionality. The update will give users much more to do on the site rather than just looking up new games to download from the XBL Marketplace. Everyone can expect the update around 5:00 tomorrow if everything goes smoothly.
- Browser based Avatar editor: Edit your avatar and preview avatar items before purchase
- Combined views for messages, friend and game requests
- Improved notification of your account subscription
- Leverage Family Reports to understand what your family is doing and how they are using LIVE
- Play web games with your Xbox LIVE friends on the web or on Windows Phone 7 Marketplace: More powerful search and more intuitive ways to browse and filter
Dead Rising 2 Review
Dead Rising was one of the early hits on the Xbox 360, it was one of the first games to really push the number of characters on screen at any given time, where zombie games before it maybe had a dozen or so enemies at once Dead Rising threw hundreds at you. The game gave players a truly new zombie experience, now Dead Rising 2 tries to push everything even more than the original.
One of the first things players will notice about Dead Rising 2 is that it stays very close to the original, the game takes place in a mall where the hero has to wait til rescue comes, during that time you’ll fight you’re way through hordes of zombies while you go complete missions. Dead Rising 2 does change things up a little but probably could have done more considering when the original was released. However the changes that sequel adds are definitely good ones so the title is still an improvement over what was already a solid game.
The story of Dead Rising 2 follows Chuck, a man who finds himself in fortune city, it’s here that he takes part in a reality show type game involving killing zombies, without getting too much into story Chuck gets framed and has to clear himself and at the same time figure out the mystery of the events not only involving the events in Fortune City but about the whole zombie outbreak. The story is enough to keep the game going and actually has several well done parts to it, for a game that’s all about killing zombies.
One of the biggest gameplay changes in Dead Rising 2 is the ability to combine weapons create new ones. Almost any item can be put together with another item to make a new creative weapon, this adds a whole new level of possibilities in the game and just trying out new weapons alone is sometimes fun on it’s own. The missions seem a little less frustrating than the original, failing a mission were fairly common in the original but they seem a lot more easier in the sequel.
The graphics haven’t changed much since part 1 but that’s good for the most part. The original was definitely one of the nicer looking games on the Xbox 360 at the time and the graphics still hold up. There are a few times where you’ll notice some not so good looking textures but for a game that has hundreds of characters in a single area at the same that’s understandable. The audio is also similar to the first game, character voices are done well and sound effects are good as well. The music is a nice mix, the typical calm music playing through the game adds to effect of being in a mall.
Co-op is also a new big addition to the series, players can join someone’s game anytime and also leave when they want. Playing through the game with two players is as expected even more fun than being by yourself, although the game doesn’t really change much as a two player experience it’s still a nice addition that adds more replay value to the game. There are also extra modes that players can try out, the games are from the reality show that takes place in fortune city, most of them as expected involving zombies. The extra games themselves aren’t anything ground breaking but is still a nice addition and only adds more the experience.
Overall Dead Rising 2 is a solid game, the original was an early hit on the Xbox 360 and sequel adds enough to the gameplay to keep things interesting. It stays a little too close the original’s formula but it was good one to being with, and with some of the frustrating parts of the game now fixed it becomes a fairly enjoyable game. If you were a fan of the original you’ll like Dead Rising 2 and if you missed it you can still pick up this game without needing to know what happened in the original. For those who haven’t played the original it’s recommended that you take a look at Dead Rising 2.
[starreviewmulti id=2]
Overall = 8.5
