Dead Space 3 Review

In 2008 EA’s Dead Space game was released.  Then, some spin off games came out and then the second Dead Space was released. The Dead Space series has been one of my favorite series ever since the first one came out. Now in Dead Space 3, the story takes place 2 months after the events that occurred in Dead Space 2. Isaac Clarke teams up with Earth Gov and has a new mission. Now venture in Ice planet Tau Volantis to destroy the marker once and for all.

 

The game has the same controls as the other 2 Dead Space games. But instead of buying weapons, you can build your weapons by finding parts. You can build the classic weapon as well.  A couple of new features include getting scavenger bots, which can help find parts. You don’t have to face the necromorph sprawl alone; you have the option to co-op with a friend online.  I really like the build your own weapon system. You can be creative and you can share blueprints of weapons you built with your friends.  The co-op is a lot fun too. There are some missions that you only do in co-op and you find out more about the second player’s character named Carver. This game is very well developed. The graphics are really well done and the necromorphs are grossly detailed. There are not many glitches in the game that I have encountered. I don’t like some of the armor design that well in this game. I like Isaac’s snow suit, it looks awesome and Carver’s Special Forces suit is nice too.

But overall I think it is a great game. I recommend playing it especially with a friend.

8.5/10

New Characters in Playstation All Stars

Our new challengers

New downloadable content for PS All Stars was released last week along with a large patch unlocking Kat from the vita's Gravity Rush and Emmett Graves, the space cowboy from Starhawk. Emmett is a ranged character who can call in various weapons and devices, much like in Starhawk. Kat uses a variety of short ranged kicks as well as her gravity powers to dominate. These characters are free for a limited time and are reasonably quick downloads. Also newly on the Playstation Store is a map from Heavenly Sword and several minions.

Aliens: Colonial Marines Review

Aliens: Colonial Marines is finally out after about seven years in development and now it's time to find out if it's a stand up fight or just another bug hunt. Colonial Marines picks up some seventeen weeks after Aliens where a group of marines who have received a distress call from Cpl. Dwayne Hicks,  are sent out to investigate the Sulaco which has mysteriously found itself back above LV-426. Once aboard the Sulaco things quickly go to hell when your squad runs into xenos and Weyland Yutani soldiers, which eventually leads to you being back at Hadley's Hope. This all leads to the most obvious twist and the biggest none ending I've seen in gaming after an atrocious boss battle. But none of the story really matter because it's all just an excuse to bring you filled a nostalgia filled romp, such as half of Bishops body and Newts doll. But this is all good for about the first hour but revisiting things from the movie can only get you so far. The only thing that they've nailed is the sound design, the pulse rifle sounds exactly like it should. Once the nostalgia wears off all your left with is a mediocre shooter that looks like it's ten years old, it's really just filled with things that have been done in games before and frankly a hell of a lot better.

This game comes with some truly awful AI, I don't remember the Aliens in the movie just standing in one spot and letting themselves get mowed down by pulse rifle rounds. Aren't the Aliens supposed to be the perfect hunters, these aliens just stand there and die in four shots. This diffuses any sense of tension this game has knowing that the xenos are so severely under powered. The game also suffers from quiet a few glitches my favorite being that every once in awhile the gun in your hands just disappears, but it's not just limited to that you'll also have the occasional enemy that teleports and you'll also quiet frequently clip through objects.  To break up the pace of just shooting xenomophs you'll also find yourself gunning down Weyland Yutani soldiers, a few clunky power loader sequences, and one horrid stealth sequence. If you are compelled to play this you also have some collectibles to get like audio logs (which don't add anything to alien lore), Weapons from the movies like Hicks' shotgun and Hudson's pulse rifle, and dog tags of the characters in the movie. You can also play the whole campaign in 4 player coop but this really adds nothing and just serves to make the already easy campaign easier.

And once you get through all of that we get to the multiplayer where even more problems arise. The multiplayer consists of two squads one of marines and one of aliens squaring off in multiplayer modes that range from traditional team death match to a left for dead like mode called escape, but the multiplayer modes are all just really boring. Also the aliens are still under powered in the multiplayer, so they still can't catch a break. This partly comes from the fact that you can level up your colonial marine during the single player so when you jump into multiplayer your "state of the bad-ass art".

What this game comes down to is one bad generic shooting sequence after another. So Gearbox was trying to make alien 3 look like a better movie and I'm here to say that they have succeeded, but probably not in the way they intended.

3.0/10 

first video of Bungies Destiny

Sly Cooper: Theives in Time Review

Ten years ago, Sly Cooper appeared, immediately becoming one of Playstation's favorite heroes and making a name for Sucker Punch studios. Hailed for incredible balance and climbing abilities, this thief did good for the world by targeting some of the most dangerous criminals. In Sly Cooper, Sly began his adventures by tracking down and ruining every member of the gang responsible for murdering his father. In Band of Thieves, he took on another violent crime syndicate, this one using dangerous pieces of machinery to improve their villainous operations. In Honor Among Thieves, he traveled the world, recruiting some of the most revered thieves to aid him on a mission to collect his displaced inheritance. Now, eight years after the Honor Among Thieves, Sanzaru Games has resurrected Sly and the gang for a fourth installment. I was given an opportunity to play a mission back in September, and now, at the game's release, I am anxious to play the finished product.

The story involves Sly Cooper coming out of retirement in order to rescue his ancestors who seem to be vanishing from history, along with Bentley's girlfriend Penelope. Bentley's time machine brings them back to points in history where Cooper family members would have existed. The gang begins to find people and technology that have no business in that time or location, and must unravel a mystery unlike any they had faced in their other adventures.

The new art style allows Sanzaru to make their game stand apart from Sucker Punch. The game play is about the same as before, and I only had a few problems navigating the world. They stuck to the same world as used in Sly 2 and 3, with an open world hub with certain missions straying into enemy operations. The collectables system includes bottle-and-safe puzzles from the first Sly, treasure runs from the second, and Sanzaru's own idea of hiding Cooper Gang logos around the areas.

Rioichi Cooper sneaking around Japan

Playable characters have always added value to these games, and this is no different. The list includes Sly, Bentley, Murray, Inspector Fox, and a Cooper ancestor that fits with whatever time period you're in. The four heroes play mainly the same as the did in Sly 3, but the ancestor is usually just Sly's move set with some new ability. From Bob Cooper's ability to climb straight walls, to Tennessee Kid's ability to shoot guards and obstacles from a distance, you'll find yourself excited waiting to see what your next ancestor can do.

This game is not without it's flaws. There is an unhealthy amount of Sixaxis control challenges, and the game is bogged down with mini games. There was a Bentley hacker puzzle about every three missions, and one of the puzzle types was a Sixaxis. There were entire missions of just mini games, and most missions squeezed one in. Though most of the boss fights were incredibly entertaining, the final boss was entirely made up of quick time events, making it look nice, but somewhat uneventful.

Overall, I thought this game was fantastic. It may be heavy on the mini games, but it has an interesting plot, fun game play, and was a good continuation of one of my favorite series. I am interested to see what Sanzaru does next, with Sly or on another project.

8/10

PS4 Prototype Controller

A picture of the new PlayStation's controller has been leaked, But given that this is an early prototype the final design is likely to look a lot different.

 

Another Photo has been leaked.

New Batman Game Coming This Year

 During an investors call the CFO of Time Warner John K Martin revealed that a new game in the Arkham series was coming this saying  "And we also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the Batman Arkham franchise," including "So all in all, we expect Warners to post another very strong year in 2013. And with a little luck, the year should be as good or maybe even a little bit better than 2012."

This comes after reports that the game will be set in the Silver Age and feature members of the Justice League, but that wasn't supposed to arrive until 2014. And Developer of the previous Batman Arkham games hinted that their next game wouldn't be a Batman game.  

Last of Us Delayed

Best Buy has changed the release date of the game to June 18th. But Amazon and Gamestop still list the game with its original release date of May 7th. If this turns out to be true this will be the first time Naughty Dog has delayed a game once they've announced a firm release date.

Update:
The Last of Us Has now officially been delayed until Friday June 14th, Naughty Dog has released the following statement:

As a team we pride ourselves on setting a very high quality bar for every aspect of our games – gameplay, story, art, design, technology and more. We want to make sure The Last of Us raises that bar even further – for ourselves, and most importantly, our fans.

As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realize just how massive Joel and Ellie’s journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog’s internal high standards.

Michel Ancel Protesting Rayman Legends Delay

Michel Ancel and other members of Rayman development team have banded together to protest the games delay. Last week Ubisoft announced that they where delaying the game from February 26th to early September, so that they could bring it to the PS3 and Xbox 360. 



The sign that the Devs are holding translates to "Release Rayman. Show support for Ubisoft Montpelier."

Full Frontal Assault Review

Ratchet and Clank has been one of Playstation's favorite franchises since the first game came out in 2001. The series includes some of my favorite games, characters, and plot lines of all time. On November 27, the eleventh installment was released under the title Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault. The game features a mix of tower defense and platforming shooters, as players are sent to take over enemy structures while simultaneously defending their own headquarters. A huge fan of the series, I couldn't stay away from this game for very long. The nature of the game caused me to convince Danny K, vintage game expert and fellow R&C fan, to help me out.

The game begins aboard a cruiser called Phoenix II, where Captain Qwark, monitors the galaxy for possible threats. Qwark expresses his discontent with how peaceful Polaris is just in time for a masked, nameless super-villain to appear and reveal that he had deactivated the Planetary Defense Network across three planets. Qwark, along with Ratchet and Clank, immediately dive into battle, leaving the Plumber in charge of Phoenix II. The game tracks our three heroes across the endangered planets, defending Q-force bases and reactivating pieces of the Defense Network.

Both the offensive and defensive aspects of this game work well. As attacker, you must venture out, taking out squads of enemies and unlocking weapons, much like the classic style. During defense, you're required to defend six generators powering your Q-force HQ using turrets and mines that you place around the area. Alone, this can be frustrating, as you have to travel back to the base the instant some enemy triggers the motion sensor. With a partner, one player can be out earning money while the other fend off enemies and builds turrets. The vendor system, however, stands apart from the other games. All weapons are free, but you can only carry eight per round, only collect one per vendor, and the weapons reset after each round.

There is also a competitive multi-player aspect of this game. Competitive battles consist of three phases, recon, squad, and assault. Recon is for collecting weapons, squad is for building turrets and hiring troops, and assault is for leading the strike on your opponents. How you act in your squad phase can determine how your assault phase runs, as not having enough troops can cause your opponents defenses to stand or not having enough turrets can leave your base wide open. The competitive aspect of the game adds something fun to do with your friends if you've already run through the short list of campaign missions.

My biggest issue in this game is its lack of creative levels. You battle across three planets, then the villain launches weather devices and you battle across one of the planets again, this time with a snowstorm. Also, if played alone, the game takes much longer to finish and is a bit more difficult, making a coop partner necessary.

This game is an interesting spin on the Ratchet & Clank norm, and I had a lot of fun battling against aliens alongside my friend. This is a welcome addition to the Ratchet & Clank family, but a fan can only hope that Insomniac Studios will return to the platforming, planet hopping games that we all loved.

7.5/10

Rayman Legends delayed, And Will No Longer be a Wii U exclusive

Ubisoft has announced that Rayman Legends has been delayed and will no longer be a Wii U exclusive. Legends will no be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii U in early September. Over six months after its original release of February 26th.

Xavier Poix, managing director of Ubisoft's French studios said "When we saw all the comments when we announced the game would be focused on Wii U, all of the people that have both the PlayStation 3 and 360 were really disapointed." 

Psychonauts 2 lose Minecraft Devs support

Mojang's Markus Persson, and Double Fines Tim Schafer talked about a year ago about the possibilities of a new Psychonauts, but alas that dream has died.

Schafer stated "I think I gave Markus a heart attack when I told him how much Psychonauts 2 would cost." Persson clarified on Reddit that Double Fine would need $18M to make Psychonauts 2 a reality saying " I don't have time at the moment to even try to get educated enough to make an 18 million dollar deal." 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Announced

The Witcher 3 will get a full reveal in the upcoming issue of Game Informer. 

It has also been revealed that the Witcher 3 will be the "final episode" in Geralt of Rivia's story. CD Projekt Red's studio head Adam Bakowski stated " People may ask if this is really the last Witcher game. Yes it is. why? Because we believe that the series should end on a high note." 

The Witcher 3 will also be developed on CD Prejekt Reds new engine REDengine3 along with their next game Cyberpunk 2077 

The Witcher 3 is scheduled to release in 2014 with Cyberpunk 2077 to follow. 

Saints Row 4 could release in August 2013

 Chris Stockman the design director on the original Saints row, tweeted that " the word around the campfire is SR4 is shipping on current gen consoles in late august." New saints Row publisher hasn't confirmed this report.

Saints Row 4 originally just going to be an expansion to Saints Row the third called Enter the Dominatrix was morphed into a full sequel by late publisher THQ.

Although CEO of Koch media, Deep Silver's parent company, Klemens Kundratitz said there's "no doubt" the next Saints Row will release in 2013.