Posted 4/9/10 5:07 pm EST by Brian Warmoth in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Hideo Kojima broke out "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" last year at E3 as a reboot of the franchise, but the game reportedly began as something much more like the "Castlevania the Adventure" remake that became "Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth." In fact, had things turned out differently, "Lords of Shadow" could have been a level-for-level 3-D re-mastering of Simon Belmont's first quest on the NES.
Posted 4/9/10 5:00 pm EST by Brian Warmoth in News, PS3, Xbox 360
If Capcom's decision to forgo waves of DLC for "Street Fighter 4" and move right on ahead to an expanded edition of the game has you hesitant to pull out your wallet again for "Super Street Fighter 4," don't worry that it's going to happen again. The game's producer Yoshinori Ono definitively put fears of a "Super Street Fighter 4 Alpha" or "Super Street Fighter 4 2010" to rest with a commitment to ending the 4 series while he's ahead.
Posted 4/9/10 11:27 am EST by Russ Frushtick in PC, Previews, PS3, Xbox 360
One could call the original "Crysis" was one of the most hardcore games released in recent memory. Not only was it a first-person shooter with a complex power management system, its hardware requirements made it unplayable to all but the most dedicated PC gamers. While "Crysis 2" remains an FPS (with a similar power management system), the developers at Crytek have spent a lot of their time making sure that the barrier to entry won't be nearly as impenetrable. They've done this in two ways: one obvious, one less so.
Posted 4/9/10 10:42 am EST by Russ Frushtick in News, Xbox 360
Adding to the list of headlines I never thought could exist, it appears that Justin Bieber was the cause of an early and accidental reveal of "Gears of War 3." You probably already know that Cliffy Bleszinski was scheduled to appear on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" last night, but was bumped to next week due to a scheduling conflict. That scheduling conflict? Justin Bieber. Yep, CliffyB was bumped by the teen pop sensation, moving the much-anticipated game reveal to next Monday.
Posted 4/9/10 10:21 am EST by Brad Nicholson in PC, Reviews, Xbox 360
The stream of free "Mass Effect 2" DLC has yet to pull me back into the game's dark, sci-fi universe. I appreciate the fact that the "Firewalker Pack" and "Zaeed -- The Price of Revenge" exist, of course. It's just that Paradigms needed some shifting and more than one nuclear-ravaged society needed absolution since this winter.
"Kasumi's Stolen Memory," the games first PDLC, looked like a winner at GDC. It also came out at the best of times (now) for me to take a proper long look at. But after finishing, I don't think I'll be restarting the game -- even if Kasumi is more than useful.
Posted 4/8/10 6:00 pm EST by Brian Warmoth in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
"F.E.A.R. 3" will pull ideas from two of the horror genre's biggest names in film and comics, as WB Interactive has now officially announced John Carpenter and Steve Niles as consultants on the project. The pair contributed to the cinematics and script, respectively, adding perspectives honed in other mediums to the new video game franchise installment.
"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is evolving the F.E.A.R. brand with top horror, co-op and first person shooter combat in 'F.E.A.R. 3,'" Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president Martin Tremblay said in a press release. "Monolith Productions has passed the torch to Day 1 Studios to create a quality, powerful game that stays true to the roots of the F.E.A.R. franchise but takes players to a heightened level of gameplay."
Posted 4/7/10 11:47 am EST by Russ Frushtick in Previews, Xbox 360
I wouldn't call "Crackdown 2" ambitious, per se. It's not a vast departure from the first game. It doesn't really break new ground. If anything, the developers are attempting to refine the experience from the first "Crackdown" into a super-powered diamond. I'd say the most promising refinement is on the co-op side of things, where online play is as simple as joining a friends' game right in the middle of the action, without any interruption for them. Unfortunately I can't really comment on whether this works as fluidly as the developer claims it does, technical issues prevented any co-op play on the day I came out to see the game, but the prospect, if it works, is thrilling.
So you'll have to bear with me, as I'm just going to discuss the campaign from a single-player perspective, as that's all I saw.
Posted 4/6/10 5:00 pm EST by Brian Warmoth in News, PC, Xbox 360
"Splinter Cell: Conviction" saw Ubisoft carve its release date in stone when they decided it would launch on April 13th, 2010. That meant pressing forward and leaving a few ideas by the wayside, but one of the game's developers wants to keep his scrapped notes handy when the time comes to produce DLC.
Posted 4/6/10 2:05 pm EST by Russ Frushtick in News, Xbox 360
One of the big focuses of "Crackdown 2" is a total redesign of the network code from the first game. Issues with lag and the inability to drop in and out of a friends' game made the experience less than adequate. At a recent press event in New York, I was hoping to check out the campaign mode of "Crackdown 2," complete with co-op, but technical problems related to the hotel's internet connection prevented the two systems from getting online and connecting with one another.
Posted 4/6/10 10:03 am EST by Russ Frushtick in News, Xbox 360
Brace yourself for the most important Xbox update of our time. Today marks the day in which you'll be able to use a USB memory stick as a storage device on the Xbox 360. Yes, it has been foretold and finally it has come.
Ok, so it's not the most world-changing update, but it's still pretty handy. It basically prevents you from having to buy a proprietary 360 memory card to store save files and games. But, be warned! In order to prep a USB memory stick for use on the 360, it needs to be wiped clean, so back your content up first. Also worth noting that storage on a USB stick is limited to 16 GB, which will prevent most people from having their entire music collection plugged in at all times. But you could always have two memory sticks, right? One for pop punk and the other for jazz standards. That should just about cover everything.