Starcraft 2 Commerical! You Will want to see This!

Space Invaders Infinity Gene: Because we all love Space Invaders Right?

Pre-E3: Destructoid’s Big List!

“

Less than a week to go, folks. What games are you most excited to see?

2K Games

• Mafia II (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Sid Meier's Civilization V (PC)
• Spec Ops: The Line (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• X-COM (PC, Xbox 360)

2K Sports:

• NBA 2K11
• NHL 2K11

2K Play:

• New Carnival Games (Wii)
• Nickelodeon Fit (Wii)

Activision

• Call of Duty: Black Ops (PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• DJ Hero 2 (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Spider-Man: Shattered Memories (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• GoldenEye (Nintendo DS, Wii) [Rumored]

Bethesda

• Brink (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Fallout: New Vegas (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Rage (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Capcom

• Dead Rising 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (Xbox 360)
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Okamiden (Nintendo DS)
• Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 (Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network)
• Sengoku BASARA: Samuari Heroes (PlayStation 3, Wii)
• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Nintendo DS)

City Interactive

• Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII (Wii)
• Crime Lab: Body of Evidence (Nintendo DS)
• Farm Frenzy Animal Country (Nintendo DS)
• Jewels of the Tropical Lost Island (Nintendo DS)
• Logic Machines (Nintendo DS)
• Sniper: Ghost Warrior (PC, Xbox 360)

Codemasters

• Bodycount (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• F1 2010 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Crave

• Brunswick Pro Bowling (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)
• Man vs. Wild (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Deep Silver

• Nail'd (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Disney Interactive Studios

• Epic Mickey (Wii)
• Guilty Party (Wii)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Toy Story 3: The Video Game (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Tron Evolution (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Electronic Arts

• APB: All Points Bulletin (PC)
• Bulletstorm (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Crysis 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Dead Space 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• EA Sports Active 2.0 (Wii)
• EA Sports MMA (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• FIFA Soccer 11 (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Madden NFL 11 (PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP)
• Medal of Honor (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
• NBA Jam (Wii)
• NBA Elite (TBD)
• NCAA Football 11 (PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• NHL 11 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)

Konami

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3, 360)
• The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice (Wii)
• Def Jam Rapstar (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
• Hardcore: Uprising (Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network)
• Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring (PS3, 360, Wii, PSP)
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• N3: Ninety-Nine Nights II (Xbox 360)
• Rush'N Attack Ex-Patriot (Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network)
• Saw II (PLaystation 3, Xbox 360)

LucasArts

• The Force Unleashed II (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Lego Star Wars III (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Monkey Island 2 SE (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Microsoft

• Fable III (PC, Xbox 360)
• Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360)
• Halo: Reach (Xbox 360)

MTV Games

• Rock Band 3 (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)

Namco Bandai

• Ace Combat: Joint Assault (PSP)
• Clash of the Titans (PS3, 360)
• Enslaved (PS3, 360)
• Dragon Ball: Origins 2 (DS)
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (PS3, 360)
• Pac-Man (TBD) [New title TBA]
• Splatterhouse (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Nintendo

• FlingSmash (Wii)
• Zelda (Wii)
• Metroid: Other M (Wii)

Sega

• Conduit 2 (Wii)
• Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP)
• Tournament of Legends (Wii)
• Shogun 2: Total War (PC)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (PlayStation Network , Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone)
• Sonic Colors (Wii, DS)
• Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP)
• Vanquish (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Yazuka 4 (PlayStation 3)

Sony Computer Entertainment

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
• Gran Turismo 5 (PlayStation 3)
• The Fight: Lights Out (PS3)
• Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip (PSP)
• inFamous 2 (PlayStation 3)
• Killzone 3 (PlayStation 3)
• The Last Guardian (PS3)
• LittleBigPlanet 2 (PlayStation 3)
• MotorStorm Apocalypse (PlayStation 3)
• Move Party (PlayStation 3)
• The Shoot (PlayStation 3)
• SOCOM 4 (PlayStation 3)
• Sports Champions (PlayStation 3)
• Slider (PlayStation 3)
• TV Superstars (PlayStation 3)

Sony Online Entertainment

• DC Universe (PC, PlayStation 3)
• Free Realms (PC, PlayStation 3)
• The Agency (PC, PlayStation 3)

SouthPeak Interactive

• Battle vs Chess (Mac, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable)
• Two Worlds II (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Square Enix

• The 3rd Birthday
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox)
• Dungeon Siege 3 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox)
• Final Fantasy XIV (PC, PlayStation 3)
• Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
• Front Mission Evolved
• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox)
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)
  
• Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (PC, PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade)
• The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts (WiiWare)
• The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages (WiiWare)

THQ

• de Blob: The Underground (Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360)
• Homefront (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Red Faction: Armageddon (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• The Last Airbender: The Movie (Nintendo DS, Wii)
• Warhammer 40,000 Online (PC)
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• WWE All Stars (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2011 (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw Online (PC)

Tecmo Koei

• Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Trinity: Zill O'll Zero (PlayStation 3)
• Quantum Theory (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Warriors: Legends of Troy (PS3, 360)

Twisted Pixel

• Comic Jumper (Xbox LIVE Arcade)

Ubisoft

• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Clash of Heroes HD (PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade)
• R.U.S.E (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Shaun White Skateboarding (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Driver (Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Valve

• Portal 2 (PC, Xbox 360, Mac)

Warner Bros.

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Nintendo DS, Wii)
• F.E.A.R. 3 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360)
• Mortal Kombat (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Super Scribblenauts (DS)
• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)”  Destructoid.com

   Now that’s a big list; but from simply perusing the list it seems there are a few games that have not been announced yet that are missing.  Which makes sense, so don’t look at this as comprehensive.

New 2D Mortal Kombat Announced! Insanity ensues

E3 2010… Cause I Guess You Deserve a Preview?

         Hello gentle reader,

            I suppose being the week before E3 you expected to see all kinds of previews and rumors and general garbage going up.  Well, too freakin bad!  I don’t do news, rumors, or anything like that unless it is as good as confirmed or if it’s just crazy and silly.  Not much out there strikes me as crazy or silly.  Except perhaps, the whole PS4 leak viral video.  Which has been bouncing around, want to see it?  You know how to get to Google and Youtube don’t you?  Well, go ahead….

        These days I’m more involved in getting reviews done and trying to find a book or magazine for the plane ride to Cali, to worry about what the blazes people are rumoring about.  The sheer bulk of B roll news rolling out is absolutely mind numbing.  But hey, lets not get overly negative here.  Look at the pretty soft kitten….  Isn’t she sweet.

      Anyway, look for a few reviews and some good stuff coming out of E3 next week.  I will try and get as much out at the highest quality possible.  As usual there will be a mix of video and writing.  So don’t get too bummed if things aren’t hot and heavy 24/7 that just means there is some really good stuff dropping.

    I’m certainly looking forward to seeing all that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have to offer but I’m also looking forward to getting my hands on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood as I’ve never played a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed before.  Also I would love to get another look at DC UNIVERSE ONLINE and hopefully the Agency isn’t canceled and there will be more information on the future of the franchise.  I don’t know if Star Wars Old Republic will be there, but hopefully there will be at least a new trailer.  Of course, there will be surprises and I’m certainly psyched for those as well.

Technorati Tags: E3,XBOX360,PS3,Wii,Nintendo,Sony,Microsoft,DCuniverseonline,Agency,videogames,journalism

 

Mortal Kombat Rebirth Trailer! What is it for? Movie? Game?

Kicking Juri Tutorial! Option Select Does it Again!

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown! Finally!

Avatar Days: Wow Movie all the cool kids are watching it

Split Second Review: It takes more than that!

          There are racing games that you can’t put down and then there are racing games that you want to put down right away.  Split Second lands somewhere in between the two.  If I weren’t writing a review for this game and a little bit of an achievement whore I would have stopped playing Split Second after the the first time I “accidentally” hit some little piece of geometry that is invisible when your going over hundred miles an hour down a straight.

       Before I get down on Split Second let me say that it is probably the modern version of Burnout.  Which only makes me want to see what the folks over at EA could do with a NEW BURNOUT.  Come on guys, one more time with feeling.  Split Second does allow you to do some serious damage to both your opponent cars and  the course it self.  You can even change the course so drastically that it can open up whole new routes that can change the way the course is driven.  This is both the game’s greatest strength and ultimately one of it’s greatest weaknesses.

    The tracks are great, they have a few different ways of going through them and certainly some of the explosions the first or second time you see them are pretty mind blowing.  But as time wears on, and it will, you will get accustomed to these explosions and pretty much just make sure you remember how to get around the ensuing carnage that the explosions create.  Certainly all of the cool physics of the game are highlighted here.  The graphics are wonderful as you can see in the screenshots but most of the cars could probably have looked better.  Especially because these cars aren’t licensed.  Which brings me to another problem with Split Second, the cars look all most completely the same and you can’t change the color of the Elite Class cars.  I can understand why developers do this when the cars are unique cars from a manufacturer but if your creating the cars yourself they should be a lot cooler looking and you should be able to change their colors; all of them.

    The real problem with Split Second is that the game is all ways trying to make you play more of it by making sure all the Elite main races are locked behind credit totals that you must unlock in order to do.  This is similar to the old system of making the player get a 3rd in every race system to move on.  Except this system makes the player thing that they don’t have to do that; when with the exception of flaking out on the Airstrike and Air Revenge events you pretty much do.  Too bad most of races and events are SO similar that by the time you reach the end of the 12th Episode, you just want to end.

     I’m sure your wondering why I’m REALLY so down on this game.  Two things: the rubber banding A.I. and the incredible lack of consistency in the properties of the vehicles.  I could probably have dealt with the latter if not for the former.  There is nothing worse in this game than the ridiculously stupid A.I.  The whole game is about wrecking your opponents but what is the point of doing that if a quarter of a link later those same opponents can be on your back bumper once again.  In one of the final races I triggered a 6 car wreck.  But less than half a lap later all of the cars I’d wrecked were right on my back bumper all bunched up like I had just passed them, not wrecked them.  However, when the player wrecks, you usually end up anywhere from 1 position to 5 positions back from where you were wrecked.  Sometimes in the Elite Main races you just start back in 8th.  Don’t get me wrong, wrecking people is fun; but only when there is some pay off.  And i don’t mean just getting them out of your way.  The other big issue I had was that all most half of the cars in the game had ridiculous drift but couldn’t do anything else.  Which made them useless.  You would move into a turn and just drift across the turn, losing spots, speed etc…  Then there are the trucks that have incredible durability but if you hit a turn wrong you end up crashed instead of bouncing off the side panel like normal.  So what’s the incredible durability for if you aren’t going to be given the benefit of bouncing off a bad turn.

     Finally, Split Second just gets to be a drudge to play.  The only fun I had was unlocking the insane 20+ achievements in the game for basically just playing through the career mode.   Which incidentally is really your only choice at the beginning because all most none of the cars are unlocked to begin with.  If you want to play online you NEED to finish the Career mode first.  It will unlock tracks and cars.  If you don’t, don’t even bother trying because all most everyone else will have either unlocked those cars or paid to have them unlocked through DLC.  Which I think is awful; making people play offline to unlock stuff and then when they don’t want to play through the many hour career mode giving them the choice to unlock said cars and tracks by paying.  Why not just charge $5 more for the game and unlock everything for online right off?  Oh yeah, people would think that was the publisher or developer being cheap.

       If Split Second had a no rubber band A.I. and better handling on the cars in the game.  It would be great even with the limited number of tracks and cars.  But as it stands, even with DLC tracks which considering the size of these tracks I don’t think there will be any.  This game just isn’t worth owning.  Maybe a rental if your bored and everything else is checked out.  But considering the number of great racing games for the XBOX 360 and the few good ones for the PS3.  You could probably skip Split Second without losing out on much.  And if you really can’t find anything go out and rent Blur.  I’ve played enough of it to know that it is all ready MUCH better than this game.

Technorati Tags: splitsecond,blackrock,racing,cars,burnout,PS3,XBOX360,EA,microsoft,sony,split,second

N3 II demo! Its Not good but I liked it anyway!

  

   So when I began playing the demo for Ninety Nine Nights 2 I remembered what I liked and what I didn’t like about the first game.  I liked the different characters with special powers and challenging arenas where you had to perform certain objectives in order to advance and ultimately win.

    What I didn’t like was how repetitive the game was or how unforgiving the difficulty is.  Also in the first game the invisible walls weren’t doing anyone any favors.  This game is ultimately the same thing.  A case of not enough effort or perhaps just some very bad design choices.

   I loved the first game, I played it for hours; I owned a copy of it for quite a while.  But much like Bullet Witch.  This game is for a very few number of gamers and you folks probably have downloaded and played through both missions of this demo before even logging on to the internet and doing anything else.  If you didn’t like N3 number 1 your not going to like this game any better.  If you really liked #1, well it’s about the same.  I couldn’t finish the first the required four times and soon the difficulty made me give up.  But perhaps this one will be better.  We can pick character colors and abilities now as well as equipping weapons, armors, and trinkets.  Not that the demo gives you much of a sense of this but if it’s anything like the first one.  It will be great.

   So I liked the demo and I will probably buy the game.  But please people don’t do either one unless you know what your getting yourselves into.

Technorati Tags: 99nights,N3,N32,XBOX360,PS3,Namco,Japanese,brawler,RPG

My Favorite Developer goes Multiplatform!(Insomniac)

              “Working with EA Partners allows us to extend the reach of our games to a multiplatform audience while retaining ownership of the intellectual property,” said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games. “We are excited and eager to introduce Insomniac to a new group of gamers while reinforcing to our loyal fans what makes our games special.”

“This is an exciting day for all of us at EA Partners and for gamers everywhere,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners. “Insomniac is renowned for their commitment to quality and their ability to create unique, exciting worlds for gamers to explore. We look forward to help them bring their next blockbuster franchise to the millions of diehard Insomniac fans on PlayStation and the soon to be millions of diehard Insomniac fans on Xbox 360.”Insomniac Games…

 

          This is an incredible announcement considering that all most all of the success of the PS3 for the first year or two can be placed at Insomniac’s doorstep.  They make incredible games'; both shooters like Resistance and platformers like Ratchet and Clank.  I can only imagine the incredible NEW FRANCHISE that Insomniac is working on.  I can’t wait for the future.

Technorati Tags: insomniac,PS3,XBOX360,sony,microsoft,tedprice,videogames,ratchetandclank,resistance

A Sentiment I can get Behind. Thanks Guys….

Betas(Halo Reach and Need for Speed World Online)

        This certainly isn’t a review of either Halo Reach Beta or Need for Speed World Online because that would be kind of silly.  What I will say is that both betas actually have something in common.  Both games are terribly less interesting than I was expecting.

        The guys at Bungie have balanced the Halo series into submission and have created a ho-hum version of the series that started in Halo ODST with the lack luster gameplay and content that was more akin to to an expansion pack for Halo 3 rather than a whole new game.  This game(at least the multiplayer) seems to be just like Halo 3 only with armor powers.  These include: being able to run fast, cloak, use a jetpack, and create personal bubble shield with a damage generating explosion.  These, except for the jet pack, really don’t change the gameplay one bit.  The jet pack is great for getting from one side of the map to the other and being able to drop in unexpectedly on foes.  But all the other armor powers seem to be pretty useless unless the person you are fighting isn’t expecting it or doesn’t understand how it works.

       Otherwise all the new additions are mostly just new maps, new modes, etc… All of which could have been done in the current Halo 3.  The incentive for all this is that you get credits to buy armor pieces.  Really?  Why do I care?  They all ready let you win armor pieces in the current Halo 3.  What is so different about this?  I’m sure the single player campaign will be great and the graphics have received some tweaks, but in the end this seems like another quarter step forward rather than an actual new game worthy product.  Again, this is based solely on the beta, which is only multiplayer.  But certainly there aren’t going to be any BIG changes between now and the fall release of the finished product.

       Need for Speed World Online was announced as a free to play browser game from EA.  The current situation of this, is not known to me.  I did see there might be some kind of pay model to rent cars or some such which sounds epically bad.  But the actual gameplay is a pretty standard far which has hints of Blur built in.  Blur comes out in May and this game is reportedly coming out in June.  I don’t think anyone will want to play this game after playing Blur.  Because after playing for only about 30 minutes I found myself feeling this was a total Blur rip-off and not a very good one either.  I’m not talking about the tons of problems that have come up in the beta.  It’s a beta for an online game, it makes sense there would be technical issues.  No, I’m talking about the actual gameplay that seems to be just a copy and paste from Blur.  Linear tracks (check), powerups (check), and upgradable cars (check).  Considering there have only been about three chances for folks to play the Need for Speed World Online Beta it would strike me that the game would be a little more feature rich if there are features coming.  Also, in the beta, I would have liked to play some nicer cars just to get an idea of what the scope of the game will be.  Currently the game seems FAR too easy and not anywhere near deep enough for a persistent online game.

      I love betas in general, I try to get into as many as I can and play as many different types of titles as I can.  But when the hype train begins in the beta or around the beta I think people have to understand that most of the time when the developer gets to the point of having a beta; especially a semi-open one like Halo Reach or Need for Speed World Online.  That except for some minor things like polishing and managing network code the game is done.  Only bug fixing and polishing are left.   So don’t think that because you don’t like something that, it’s only a beta, and with the input from the community all the bad stuff will be fixed.  For the most part if you hate the game in the beta you will hate the final product. 

Technorati Tags: EA,microsoft,Halo,HaloReach,shooter,needforspeed,needforspeedworld,racing,videogames,XBOX360,PC

Dragon Age Origins Darkspawn Chronicles