Black Box, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio announced that SKATE™ 3, the latest installment in the franchise, will be in stores in North America on May 11th, 2010 and worldwide on May 14th, 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. SKATE 3 plans to break new ground by letting gamers build their ultimate skate team both offline and co-operatively* to take on new challenges or competitive battles against other teams.
In the all-new Skate.School, Coach Frank acts as a mentor and teaches newcomers the ropes by showing them all the ins-and-outs of skateboarding as they hone their skills on the sticks before hitting the streets with their team. Veterans will feel right at home in Skate.School as they refresh their skills but also learn all new tricks SKATE 3 has to offer including darkslides and underflips. Gamers can hit the streets with the pros in the all-new city of Port Carverton – a true skater’s paradise with unique districts, skate parks, and endless lines. For fans with a creative flair, the new Skate.Park editor allows gamers to create their own dream plaza or mega-ramp park from scratch or use the Object Dropper to alter the landscape of Port Carverton to truly change the face of the city. In the end, SKATE 3 delivers a completely immersive and connected experience giving gamers the tools to build and share their own skate parks, videos, and photos with all their friends by uploading them directly from their console or importing custom created graphics & logos from the Skate website*. SKATE 3 features a deep roster of the world’s greatest skaters including several Thrasher Skater of the Year winners.
Their are many challenges that need to be faced upon a games initial release date. One of which is the possibility of game content that might be cut from the final build. The team of Resident Evil 5 sought to bring you that content in a re-release of the game and DLC. Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape is the second chapter and unlike the first chapter of DLC which was more of an eerie nostalgic look back, this one is run and gun with waves of enemies.
In Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape you play the role as Josh Stone and Jill Valentine as they make their escape from the African Tricell where the main base was held. Sheva and Chris make a small cameo in the beginning where it sets you up but the focus is really Jill and Josh. What this DLC lacks in scary undertones makes up for in enemies and gun fire. Their is less time to prepare ammo and check health preserves as you make a mad rush all the way to the end. Their are number of guns to pick up and emblems that will add to your overall score. Enemies are in full swing, pummeling you with everything from chainsaw zombies, zombies on turrets and zombies with crossbows.
Our biggest problem with this was the failure to include anything new in this micro campaign. No new weapons or new enemies like the first one, the only thing was the ability to play with Josh after you complete the first play through of the micro campaign. The environments aren’t anything you haven’t seen before as well, plenty of factories and construction sites fill the area. The main portion is relatively short (as short as the first one) and probably doesn’t take more then an hour to get through, although the final run can take some time to complete.
Included in this is also the Mercenary reunion mode where you will get to play Jill, Josh and if completing the micro campaign with a good enough rank Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil 0-1. Again we’re not sure why this is not in the main Mercenaries mode but the added addition is nice. You will be able to play by yourself or with a friend with one of the six new characters that are here, the rest can be unlocked with other DLC.
Overall if you already own Resident Evil 5 and have been waiting for another itch then this isn’t bad to get some hours in on. If you don’t have Resident Evil 5 then it’s probably a good idea to get the Gold Edition as it includes both missing episodes. More would have been nice but the constant state of alert you undergo keeps you on your toes till the end.
Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that the closed beta for Need for Speed World, the massively multiplayer online action racing game has begun. Over the course of the next few months, thousands of players worldwide will have the opportunity to claim one of the limited slots in the PC beta test by enlisting at world.needforspeed.com. Need for Speed World testers will be the first in the world to get an insider’s look at this hotly anticipated racing MMO, and their constructive feedback will go straight back to the development team to help add polish, finesse and tuning to the final product.
“Need for Speed World is the world’s first MMO racer – a completely new entertainment experience for speed junkies all over the world,” said John Doyle, Need for Speed World Senior Producer. “We have expanded Need for Speed’s classic adrenaline fueled racing with an all-new power up system and deep RPG style progression to create a truly massive, socially-connected white-knuckle Need for Speed experience.”
Need for Speed World brings together best in class action racing with an unparalleled social experience. For the first time in a racing game, players will be able to compete against any one of their friends, family or pick from thousands of top ranked players to challenge in intense online battles and police pursuits across 150 miles of sprawling open world. Need for Speed World takes the well known and popular cities from Need for Speed Most Wanted and Need for Speed Carbon to create the biggest, most exciting race world ever released in the Need for Speed universe. Need for Speed World will be available this summer on the PC.
So it finally has a name. Sony Computer Entertainment unveiled the PlayStation Move at the Game Developers Conference. Sony now has an official motion control device that is soon to be released.
The once codenamed the Arc, much information was shared about the new motion controller. The PlayStation Move’s functionality is based on three words “precise”, “responsive” and “Ultra Sensory”. It has been stated that the Move can create this gaming experience with its ability to track fast and slow motions with just under one frame of latency. A few demos took stage. It showed that the Move has progressed since Sony’s 2009 E3 conference.
Sports Champion: Gladiator Duel
Sports Champion: Table Tennis
The first game that showed the new motion controller’s capabilities was Sports Champions. The game was basically a series of games in one. Gladiator Duelshowed how two Move controllers come together to form sword and shield with one to one movement gameplay. In the Table Tennis demo it showed how a subtle movement of the wrist can cause a topspin shot or a slice drop shot, as well with fast and full arm movement, power shots were displayed. Also there will be Archery and Volleyball coming with the game. The gritty Motion Fighter demonstrated how in order to land a real punch, there must be full arm extension with the controller. The behind the back view puts you on the level to throw uppercuts, hooks and headlocks for extra damage.
Move Party
EyePet
More casual games were next on stage. Move Party seems to be a social game setup with random mini games. Some of the mini games consisted of the controller being used to hit bugs with a tennis racket, coloring in shapes, and cutting hair with clippers. LittleBigPlanetdevelopers used a combination of the Move controller along with the Sixaxis controller. While one player controls Sackboy the other player helps out with the Move controller by turning and shifting platforms throughout the level. A video of EyePet was displayed. The controller was used to clean the pet, bounce it around with a trampoline, customize the style of its fur, and also to draw on the screen to have the pet reenact your movement to create the same drawing.
SOCOM 4
Sub-Controller
The Move is also capable to be played with games like the newly announced SOCOM 4 developed by Zipper Interactive. Developers of the game showed how the Move can be used to fire weapons and the second controller was used for directing the player. The second controller for the direction movement is called PlayStation Move Sub-Controller which has a analogue stick and D-pad.
Sports Champions: Archery
Motion Fighter
All of the games that took stage were still not fully developed games. When PlayStation Move releases this fall, these games will go hand and hand with its launch along a full set of twenty games by the end of the fiscal year 2010. Details on different bundles were one packaged with just the controller for those that have the Eye camera already. Another that has been dubbed the Move Starter Kit, including the Eyetoy camera, Move Controller and a game for less than $100. The final setup was to have the Move Starter Kit to be placed with a PS3 system. While aiming at all types of gamers and genres, Sony is going to put in a lot of effort to treat this like a console launch.
Here is a little info about this new Sony product. The Move and the Sub-Controller do not use batteries, instead it is charged through a mini USB cable. No wires are needed for the two to be connected. The Sub-Controller, as of now, does not have a motion detection device in it. That is why the game Motion Fighter used two Move controllers. Gyroscopic tilt sensors in the controller transmit placement, position and movement data to the PS3. The sphere on top of the motion controller is what the PlayStation Eyetoy use to detect the Move. Also the sphere changes color according to your environment so the PlayStation Eye can detect the Move easier. The PlayStation Eyetoy can detect faces, gender, age, smiles, open and closed eyes, and speech. The system memory used is 1-2 MB to operate the motion setup. Up to 4 PlayStation Move controllers can be connected to the system, or a combination of two Move controllers and two Sub-Controllers. It is also now known that because of the blue tooth limitation of the PS3 (by 7 components) it cannot connect 4 Move controls and Sub-Controllers to go along with them. What game limitations this will have in the future, only time will tell.
The Move has a great amount of support going for it. As of now, here are some of the publishers planning on releasing games for this new motion controller.
Sony officially announced the name of it’s motion controller: Playstation Move. Also shown off at the show were several games that utilize the new controller and some new information on what the peripheral will bring to gamers.
From the demonstrations shown it looks like Playstation Move will be similar to the Wiimote, there are two pieces to the controller: a primary one that handles most of the actions, and the secondary controller which handles movement. Sony claims that there will be 20 games for Playstation Move this year, some of these games include: Motion Fighter, Move Party, Sports Champions, and Socom 4. As the names of the titles suggests, it appears that Sony is making sure almost all genres are going to get some sort motion controller functionality. Sony hasn’t announced an official date yet for Playstation Move, and didn’t give any firm prices however it did mention that one of it’s bundles will be under $100. Sony said that it will be treating the launch of Playstation Move almost like a console launch.
Darwinia+ is a game like any other on XBLA, it’s uniqueness alone warrants a look, however the game has more to it than an interesting concept, the gameplay is a fun combination of action, and strategy.
In 2005 Darwinia was first released and got a lot of attention partially due to the fact the game was a well received independent game. Now the developers bring the orginal Darwinia in a more stream lined fashion to XBLA and even brought with a multiplayer mode. Darwinia’s story follows the darwinians a tribe of simple minded computer programs that live in the virtual world, one day virusus attack the virtual world and it’s now up to the player to save the darwinians.
The main mode of gameplay comes with the three units that the player has control over. The squad unit are the soliders of darwinia and are your main tools to fighting the virusus, this part of the game acts much like a arcade style shooter not found in many strategy games. The second unit are the engineers who are sort of the workers, these units can build and capture structures. The third units are the darwinins themselves however the player doesn’t have direct control over them, instead a leader will direct them and give them orders on what to do and the darwinins will follow there orders.
The game is lengthy and provides a variety of scenarios and objectives the player has to get through, the in this respect is challenging especially during the more difficult levels. However as a total package the game is worth the price on length alone, especially when considering the extra content that was bundled with the game.
The sound in Darwinia+ is a good mixture of techno and electronica, the sounds of darwinia fit right in with it’s mood and setting. Sound effects are nice but are somewhat generic, all the blaster shots other sounds are like what you expect in a virtual computer esque setting.
The graphics are purposly old-school wireframe so the game has a very retro feel to it, people who are into this sort of setting will enjoy it however for a lot of gamers they could see the graphics as bland and stipped down. The game is definitly not trying to impress anyone with graphical horsepowers, unfortunally its not the most artistic game either since it’s all just computer wireframes.
Multiwinia as the name suggests brings the gameplay into multiplayer, players will be able to battle other players for control of the map in game modes King of the Hill, and Domination. Although this mode won’t appeal to everyone who buys Darwinia+, it does add more replay value to those who do really enjoy Darwinia’s gameplay.
Overall Darwinia+ is solid title for an XBLA game, at $15 it’s on the high end side of price but being that the game was once a full PC game the price is worth it. The game is a fun strategy experience and one that is fairly unique, if the idea of blasting virusus in a virtual world your idea of fun then Darwinia+ is defniitly worth a look.
Borderlands seems to be one of those games you just keep coming back to. Up until now the game has had two releases of downloadable content, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxie’s Underdome Riot. Both with their own set of advantage and disadvantages, the third installment of DLC is the best out of the bunch. Bringing you not only new weapons, new environments, a new story, and new enemies, it also has new vehicles as well. Get ready to add a hell of alot more hours of gameplay in Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC.
The DLC starts you off at the town T-Bone Junction and is also where Scooters shop is held. While T-Bone Junction may seem to be your resting station, like the main game in Borderlands, its filled with secrets and fun goodies to even make scavenging fun. Everything here seems to be taken with a bit more care then the main game, making the experience fresh for all. Story fits right into the end of the main game, enemies are smarter and characters are funnier (pretty vulgar as well). You’ll here more punch lines and jokes in this then Jay Leno returning to the tonight show.
The enemies have gotten a revamp, and give a bit of a surprise in every turn. Only mentioning a few are the new skag riders, soldiers on jet packs, giant spiders called drifters (I hate spiders ..) and enemies in vehicles, including the one that can be seen near the end of the main game. All of this fit well on the new terrains and use many obstacles to their advantage. The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is filled with long roads, ridding itself of teleporters and focusing on the commute with the newer vehicles in the DLC. Scooter will give you access to a truck in the beginning with some much dissevered homing rockets. Other characters will present a faster buggy then the main game and a 4 man vehicle which is slower but still fun to ride.
Weapons and items have better attributes, making them pretty endless the more you level up. The amount of content well exceeds the other two and like the main game, it has hidden items all over the place. While the main story itself won’t take you very long, all the side missions combined will have you going at this for days, especially if you have some friends in on it. Especially if your trying to reach the new level cap, yes there is a new level cap of 61!, so expect tougher battles the farther you get.
The DLC is a blast to play with either friends or by yourself but we have to point out that this is not for players under level 35. For those taking that chance, it will become perfectly clear when the first enemy coming at you, leaves you in a pool of your own blood. For the rest that won’t have this problem be prepared for a variety of new enemies, secrets, items and story elements that are very welcomed here. If for whatever reason you had put this game down, this lastest installment of DLC well put you right back into the action. To make it even more challenging set it to play through 2, basically capping the level and giving you more of a pounding then a hang over from all night drinks of rum and coke “What, thats what she said!” … yea this DLC is that good.
Final Fantasy XIII
Created by Square Enix and was released for the PlayStation 3 in Japan in mid-December and since, it has had a great reception. Finally being released to the rest of the regions, the new updated structure induces excitement, and the new Active Time Battle system has a graceful stability between quick tempo action and planning tactics. There is a flawless shift between real time gameplay and in-game cinematics due to the gorgeous graphics and shine throughout the game only add to it.
To round out the rest, Yakuza 3 is a solid game, BlazBlue is going portable on the PSP, Mega Man 10 is releasing on the Playstation Network and Resident Evil5: Gold Edition continues the survival horror story while filling in the gaps. Two new chapters are added, from the eyes of Josh Stone and Jill Valentine as they help Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar.
3/8
Dracula: Undead Awakening (Wii)
Max & the Magic Marker (Wii)
3/9
BlazBlue Portable (PSP)
Calling (Wii)
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360)
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (PS3, Xbox 360)
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Wii)
Yakuza 3 (PS3)
3/10
Scrap Metal (XBLA)
3/11
Bioshock 2: Sinclair Solutions Test Pack (PSN, XBLA)
Street Fighter IV is making its return a little sooner then people then (AKA not the Super Street Fighter IV edition). The iPhone version is about to make its debut this month and we are actually quite shocked here on how good this game looks. The controls will be one issue but this video seems to show that everything from the original console version is there. We’ll have our review in the coming weeks.
The first video of “Halo: Reach” multiplayer action is now available. The “March Multiplayer Madness” video was captured from the game’s alpha build and offers a glimpse of the games many new features. The multiplayer beta will be available May 3, 2010 and will have access to it when it launches for just two months, through “Halo 3: ODST.” If your as excited as we are, then May seems like its very far away at this point.
