Normally a video game meeting its publishing deadline wouldn’t be a big deal but for Duke Nukem Forever it is a major accomplishment.  After its initial announcement in 1997 as a sequel to the classic Duke Nukem 3D, the game had become an industry joke after missing countless deadlines and undergoing several major overhauls with new game engines.  All the while the promise of a new game was kept alive with showings of exciting in-game footage and trailers at some E3s. By 2009, however, it looked like the game was all but dead when its original developer, 3D Realms, laid off the Duke staff for budget reasons.  After a nasty bit of lawsuit business between publisher and said developer for failure to finish the project; a small development team known as Triptych Studios began to resurrect the dream.

By now, Duke should have a back catalog the size of Lara Croft’s or Solid Snake’s, but it didn’t work out that way.  What we do have is his first polished full-featured triple-A title since 1998’s A Time to Kill. The new game will be rated M with plenty of crude humour and testosterone-filled one-liners you can mimic until your girlfriend punches you “right in the jewels”.

Earth Defense Force 2017 was one of the premiere budget titles of the current generation. Being part Dynasty Warriors and part Starship Troopers, the core of the game involved running through massive city levels shooting giant insects and robots while collecting powerups and new weapons, it had a very arcade feel to it in my opinion and was fantastic fun. With a huge amount of levels and weapons there was no short order of content, especially when considering the $39.99 price tag but it was missing just one major component that could have sent this game from video game cult classic to B-grade masterpiece, online cooperative play. With the new title in the series, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, D3 Publisher has listened to the fans and made this necessary upgrade a reality. 

Did I mention the 2 player split screen? I didn't? Then yeah, they got that too.

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon features 3 player co-op throughout the entire campaign, so now you and two other people can live your ultimate B-Movie Fantasies as members of the elite Earth Defense Force as they continue their attempt to foil the alien invasion of Japan (actually this entry takes place in an alternate reality, so they aren’t really continuing as the invasion is just starting). Gameplay remains largely the same as in the previous game (though it by an American team this time so it is much more playable), it is a pretty straight forward third person shooter; though the missions are a little more varied than they were previously, you won’t have missions where killing every ant is your main objective. I was told that there were less levels than there were before, but that they were much longer in legnth so it balanced out to about the same total campaign length The mission I played had me and my partners moving through the city closing up ant hills with ample amounts of explosives, killing ants and fighting giant robots and spaceships; it was a pretty average day for the guys at the EDF. It allowed me to try out the jet pack, which made getting around a ton easier than in the last game, especially the fact that it had a dash button; you can’t imagine how much I complained before about the sluggishly slow movement, and considering how huge the levels were you can imagine I complained I complained a lot. There was a vehicle in the level as well, but I didn’t really get much use out of it and the control seemed a little awkward, perhaps in the final version I will get more in depth with them. I unfortunately only got to play the game for about 15 minutes but I could already tell it was a huge improvement to an already pretty fun game; I quite enjoyed the last one so I’m really looking forward to picking this one up and I know a few others who’ll also be getting getting it so I will be able to get some co-op in for the review. 

The jetpack is the best... upgrade... ever!

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is due out this Summer for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and will retain it’s $39.99 price tag, so don’t be a punk and pick this up. There is also an EDF flyswatter inside the PAXEast Swag Bag, so don’t forget to pop over to the contest page and enter for your chance to win. 

*NOTE* I have a few more previews to do from PAXEast, but it has been a little difficult for the last few weeks so I am gonna be calling this the end of the PAXEast coverage. The Swag Bag contest will be ending tomorrow, April 6th, at 8pm, so get your final entries in before then. *NOTE END*

I’m not a big fighting game person, especially the 2D ones. It isn’t that I don’t like them, it is just that I am notoriously horrendous at them. Even on the easiest settings I have trouble beating games like Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Street Fighter 4 with most of the characters. When I play against my friends, forget about it, it is absolutely no contest; I may even have trouble beating an unpracticed child, I have the opportunity if I want, but I would be too embarrassed to even try. That is why I was very apprehensive to even grab a controller and try Autumn Games’ upcoming fighter, Skullgirls. Fortunately they not only had players like me in mind when they designed this game, but they also had seasoned tournament players in mind as well. Autumn Games may have managed to create the most well thought out fighting game of all time.

Some of the effect are pretty damn good in screenshots, but in motion they are fantastic

The version of the game I played was pretty early in development, there were no menus past simple text and only two characters and a couple of stages. The two characters provided two different strategies, the first was a fast character named Filia who seemed to rely more on quick combos; while the other, named Cerebella, was a larger grappler to would take a more direct approach. Despite the lack of menu option I did get to see one of the games most original features for tag-team fighting; instead of having a small selection of only three assist moves like in the Marvel vs. Capcom series you can program your own assist during character selection, though more novice players still get three options to select from. With this feature you are able to add a layer of customization to your assist combos instead of just being limited to what the creators think is best for you.

You get more options than just having a tag-team partner, if you want you can just have one more powerful fighter

Skullgirls is meant for tournament play so balance is a huge issue and cutting down on cheap play styles is a must, to do this Skullgirls has a set of gameplay rules, almost like a basic artificial intellegence, which is able to determine if a player is being cheap and put a stop to it. If you attempt to throw a playing into an infinite combo for example your attack’s visual effect will change color from blue to red, this is a clue to your opponent that you are being an a cheap bastard. One this happens all that person would need to do it hit a button to slap you out of the combo and maybe even move in for a follow up move, lesson learned. It also prevents a person from doing a cheap unblockable combo using theirtag partner; if you attempt to do two moves at once, one high and one low, then as long as the first move is blocked neither will hit the intended target, but this is only for immediate followup moves, after a quick moment the block will no longer still work if not in the proper place. The rules not only help prevent cheap players from getting the upper-hand, they can also help out novice players such as myself by giving them a little more leeway with move input. The best example I have is a full circle motion, in an average fighter a person who is not seasons may have trouble doing a cirlce without jumping;but with Skullgirls as long as the circle starts downward the game knows what you are trying to do and disables jump while the circle is being performed… genius! Some people would claim that these features kiddify the game, or dumb it down and those people would be idiots. It is actually quite the opposite, the game is still very skill driven and deep, no button mashing wil prevail this is all just done in a well established attempt to create a balanced competative environment. It’s intellegent game design, I think Capcom could learn a thing or two.

Last but not least is Skullgirls superb high-res 2D animation, the stills may give off a vibe of your everyday doujin fighter, but in motion it is anything but. Everything is super crisp and the animation is amazingly fluid, it is easily some of the best hand drawn animation I have seen in gaming. I was told this was accomplished by scanning in all artwork at double the require resolution, providing the clearest images possible. The backgrounds are also very detailed and have a unique style among fighters. I want to say they remind me more than anything else of old comic books, a gothic art deco reminiscent of the Batman animated series from the early 90′s. Another awesome feature is that the game makes use of dynamic lighting, which you almost never (actually I don’t think I ever) see in a 2D game, this is because the game runs on a 3D engine. It’s a small touch, but it looks quite good when you see it.

Filia's hair is her weapon and it takes quite a few forms, nearly one for every attack

Skullgirls is due out this Summer for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Many people will probably be turned off by a fighting game that isn’t by one of the major companies or from an established series but I urge any fan of 2D fighting games to give this one a try, because in term of gameplay I believe this one can truly stand up to the big boys.

The Gunstringer was one of the better games I got to get hands-on time with at PAXEast, but it wasn’t the only slice of absolute awesomeness I got to play at the Twisted Pixel booth. I also got to play the followup to their smash hit Xbox Live Arcade Game, ‘Splosion Man, which is probably the Twisted Pixel game that most of you have played. ‘Splosion Man was a puzzle-platformer where you controlled an insane science experiment gone wrong as he causes mayhem through the massive science laboratory that created him.

In the new game in the series, Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Team Science is at it again. They have finally succeeded in catching ‘Splosion Man by luring him into a trap with a giant cake (clearly a lie); but the celebration is cut short when some champagne is spilled on an electric source, which causes another lab accident that creates Ms. ‘Splosion Man. Now she has escaped the lab and is leaving a beef steak filled path of destruction in her attempt to rescue our original hero.

The team at Twisted Pixel had only six short months to develop the original game, so many of their ideas ended up never seeing the light of day. This time, however, they had much more time for development and were able to expand greatly on the original design, creating much larger and more intricate levels that even leave the endless corridors of the Team Science compound and allow you to see what life it like in the outside world. The first level I played involved the return of an iconic giant robot from the first game, but instead of the one room boss battle from the first game you fight him throughout an entire level of the game which spans roughly 10-15 minutes long (much longer than the levels of the original ‘Splosion Man). The second level I played allowed me to leave the Team Science building, where I had to jump (or ‘splode which is how ‘Splosion people jump) from flying car to flying car to make it to the next building. On top of the larger set pieces and improved graphics there is also a ton more content in the way of animations, I am going to guess that in the fifteen minutes I played I saw no less than ten different walking animations and thirty different random things  that Ms. ‘Splosion Man does including talking to herself on her hand cellphone and singing and dancing.

The original ‘Splosion Man had about fifty levels so we can expect that Ms. ‘Splosion Man will be rocking about the same amount if not more. There will also be a series of Co-Op levels which provide a larger challenge that relies on teamwork to make it to the exit. There is also going to be a bevy of original music by Chainsaw, though I have yet to hear any of it I heard that at least one song is about a large female scientist named Mandy. Twisted Pixel also is known for the large amount of unlockable content and Ms. ‘Splosion Man will be no different; music, videos, gamer pics, themes, and avatar items are to be expected for completing certain objectives.

Ms. ‘Splosion Man has no release date set though it will be in 2011, I’ll guess in the Summer. As Twisted Pixel is my favorite XBLA developer and ‘Splosion Man is one of my favorite downloadable titles you know I will be purchasing this one on day one with a review to soon follow… can’t wait. Also check out the PAXEast Swag Bag Contest we are having as there are a few Ms. Splosion Man buttons in the bag.

*Editor’s Note: Duke Nukem Forever is a filthy game intended for adults and as such I have decided to use some less pleasant language during the course of this preview, I have kept it to a minimum but if certain words that start with an “F” or “C” offend you then you may want to pass on this article… and probably on Duke Nukem Forever as well*

The biggest bad-ass in video games, circa 1996 at least, is finally back with a vengeance after an over fifteen year hiatus (lets be honest, no one counts those spin-off games). In development for over twelve years the newest installment of Duke Nukem has become something of joke among hard-core gamers over the last eight years. When developer 3D Realms discontinued development everyone thought that being able to play it was something that would never happen, but now the rights have been shifted to Gearbox Software. Because you asked for it and because you need it Gearbox Software and 3D Realms is fucking bringing it! Duke Nukem Forever will finally see a release on May 3, 2011. I know I took my day off of work!

So now that we know Duke is back in action the big question on everyone’s mind is going to be if the game was worth the twelve year wait? Well it is too early to tell but I can assure you from the little bit of the game I was able to play that it is shaping up nicely for fans of the previous game.

I can only assume you will be free to write whatever you want in this kids book. BTW 3D Realms needs to make that book, I would totally read that.

Control is very much like that of the original game, it may be a little too stiff for some people, but it is as classic as it comes. There are also newly added driving controls which were reminiscent of the Warthog in Halo, during the demo I got to take Duke’s monster truck around for a spin, but I really had trouble with the driving, I kept running into the sides. The steroid and beer power-ups return, but since there is no health bar anymore (replaced with a recharging “Ego” bar) they instead just give Duke a temporary boost in power, but at a cost; the beer, for example, will cause the screen to go fuzzy after just one drink (I always knew Duke was a lightweight). The weapons in the demo were all classics, the shotgun and the ripper machine gun being my personal favorites. I still hate the shrink-ray (which makes an appearance), I can never hit anything with that gun, but I can imagine it will lead to all sorts of hilarity in multiplayer so I better get good with it.

Interactivity is still a major part of Duke Nukem, and in Duke Nukem Forever they have taken it to a whole new level. Most of the previews you’ve been reading have no doubt made a major point of mentioning the excessively long piss can take, or the fact that you can yank a turd out of the toilet and throw it while Duke asks why you make him do these things, but those are just the most minor of abilities. In the beginning of the demo, for example, is a dry erase board detailing the battle plans to take down the massive alien wreaking havoc inside the Hollywood Bowl (I imagine that is where you are, but it has been so long since I played Duke 3D I could be wrong). By interacting with the board you get total control to erase the marker and write whatever you want on their, I personally drew a penis pointing to the alien’s face on the board because I have the imagination of a sixth grader and besides, the soldier looking at the board with me thought it was a solid plan (which I officially named “Operation: Cock-on-Mouth”), even though he didn’t understand it. I was also told that there was even more diverse interactive objects in the game, though I couldn’t get many details past a rumor of a “fully functional pinball machine”.

As a seasoned commander Operation: Cock Block just wasn't up to my standards, so Operation: Cock-on-Mouth was born.

My all too brief journey with Duke began where Duke Nukem 3D ended (unless you bought the expansion), with Duke fighting one of the massive alien leaders called The Cycloid  inside of a football stadium. I began inside of a bathroom where the very first thing the game told me to do was to take a leak in the urinal, you can drag this out as long as you want, but I had some ass to kick so I finished up fast, Duke can blame his UTI on me later. Right outside the soldiers were going over the plan to take out the Cycloid, which basically involved them all bum-rushing him, but that plan wasn’t good enough for me so I instead, like I said before, drew a penis pointed directly at the alien bastard before heading through the stadium to meet him face to face. After listening to some soldiers talk, and watching part of the stadium almost fall on me I was able to get my hands on a rocket launcher and begin the ascent to the surface to make my dream, Operation: Cock-on-Mouth a reality… it basically involved shooting The Cycloid in the face with rockets until I ran out of ammo, then reloading and shooting my load (heheh) again. It was a simple plan from a simpler time, but it seemed to get the job done. The battle remains reasonably faithful to the original, except that it isn’t ridiculously hard, but you still get to kick a field goal with his football shaped eye at the conclusion. Afterwards the camera zooms out to reveal that Duke was in fact playing the game while seeming to receive some oral gratification from a pair of twins in some very revealing schoolgirl uniforms (my favorite kind); taking a stab at itself the girls ask Duke whether the game was good, to which he replies, “Yeah, but after twelve fucking years it should be.”

The second part of the demo, which made up the bulk of it, was the level Highway 2. At the beginning you get to drive around for a few minutes in Duke’s truck, like I said before the driving controls could use a little work, but after it runs out of fuel and breaks down your goal becomes to find more gas to finish up the level. It is a pretty straight forward level and is very reminiscent of Duke 3D, you just move through a largely linear path and shoot at pig cops. There is honestly not much to say about it past the fact that I did hit a few glitches (bear in mind though this build I was playing was pretty old, and I was assure that a lot of these concerns have been fixed). The first glitch I hit was when you need to use a rocket launcher to shoot down a space ship, I made the mistake of dropping the
rocket launcher when I ran out of ammo, not knowing there was more ammo around the corner, but the launcher disappeared and there was no other way to take out the ship, so I needed to restart the battle. the second was during a part when you need to push a mine cart up a hill and jump in it to use the momentum to make a jump you can’t normally make, but when the cart got dislodged from the track while pushing I had no choice but to try to make the jump myself which didn’t go so well. Other than that I was golden.

I got pretty beat up by just one of those little ships, I can't imagine how I will fare against the big one in the background.

Gearbox promises that the game is going to pose quite the challenge and from the demo I played I can agree with them. It definitely has an old school FPS vibe going and the difficulty is just one part of that. They also said the game would be quite lengthy, like games from the time tended to be, promising a good 15-20 hours of single player game, as well as a decent slathering of multiplayer.

I am not sure if the game has gone gold yet, but I am 100% confident they will make the announced release date of May 3rd and you can bet we will have a review of the game around that time. There will be a regular edition released as well as a Balls of Steel Edition which I have my heart set on; the collectors package will include the usual array of bonus content, as well as a Roman style bust of Duke that would look just awesome on my shelf (unless I can somehow get ahold of a marble pillar). It’s almost time people, keep your fingers crossed.

At some point in their career every gamer has probably stated that graphics aren’t everything as long as the gameplay is good, and some people still adamantly agree with that creed. Unfortunately for those people that isn’t always the case, as a game like L.A. Noire couldn’t exist in any other fashion. Using the most sophisticated motion capturing technology available, MotionScan, Rockstar Games has created not only what will become the definitive crime solving video game (let’s just say it is a little more advanced than CSI and Pheonix Wright games) but may also be up there with one of the greatest games ever made. And I am making this wildly bold claim having not actually placed my hands on a controller. Of all the lines I waited in at PAXEast none was as long of a wait as the line for L.A. Noire, since I lacked a formal appointment me and some friends had taken turns waiting in line for a ridiculous two and a half hours only to find out that it wasn’t even a playable demo, but a 25 minute gameplay demonstration. Three of the five of us were rather skeptical on the game from the beginning (some of my friends are anti-Rockstar), but I can assure you that none of us left that demonstration disappointed. As a matter of fact, that demonstration may have just been the highlight of an already awesome PAX.  

At the start of the game Cole has just joined the force and will begin the game as a traffic cop and work his way up

As the title suggests, the game takes place in Los Angeles during the mid to late 1940′s. A lot of people may think of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood around that time, but the reality was that it was a pretty dark era. Crime and corruption were running rampant, America was still recovering from the Great Depression and World War II, and grotesque murders, such as the infamous Black Dhalia murder, were becoming quite commonplace. This can even be seen reflected in the film of the time, as movies began to become less campy and straight-laced and moved into a more dark and violent atmosphere the French had dubbed ‘film noir’. Some of the greatest crime films of all time have spawn from the film noir era such as The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, The Big Combo and Kiss Me Deadly; even many modern films such as Blade Runner and Sin City are heavily influenced by this genre. It is from this genre, as the title suggest yet again, that L.A. Noire draws much of its inspiration.  

The still may make it just look like this guy is making a funny face, but once you see this in motion you will almost certainly be amazed.

In L.A. Noire you play as Cole Phelps, played by Aaron Staton from Mad Men, a World War II veteran who is starting out in the Los Angeles Police Department. You will start out the game as a lowly traffic cop, walk a beat, eventually become a detective in the burglary division and work your way up to homicide, which is the major focus of the game it seems. The case that was shown during the demonstration was Cole’s first case as a homicide detective. I should note that despite the fact that Rockstar is known for their open world games it looks as if the cases are selected from a menu, though that may just be a mission replay option similar to Red Dead Redemption. This particular case involves the murder of a woman reminiscent to the Black Dhalia murder, Cole’s partner even remarks the similarity showing how many real life events are referred to in order to create a more authentic world. Upon arrival at the crime scene there are some people you can talk to, like the officer who found the body. There is evidence you can look around for, and you can also inspect the body. While doing the inspections to get to move the objects around pretty freely and realistically, tilting a head to reveal that the victim died of a blow to the head. A piece of evidence on the ground provides a solid lead to a
local club, which was the next location to check after the crime scene. At the club Cole talks to the bartender, finding out that the victim was in the bar the previous night and had been drunk. You can interrogate the owner of the club as well, which showed the many ways in which interrogation works. Basically you select a relevant question from a list and listen to the response of the suspect, while they talk you need to pay close attention to thier facial animations as that is the major clue as to the validity of their claim. After hearing them talk you can either accept what they say as truth, doubt what they are saying, or call them out as lying, but if you accuse them of lying you better have some evidence to back yourself up. It is a very well done system, and the way in which dialogue can string from these decisions provides much more than the usual set path you see in the CSI game series since you may botch the interrogation and need to seek your next lead from other sources. The trail eventually led to the husband who, when caught in a lie, tried to fight back against Cole and his partner. While no gunplay was involved the fist fighting looked very similar to other Rockstar titles suck as Bully  and The Ballad of Gay Tony; I can’t tell you for sure however, as I was only watching from the benches.  

Solving a crime isn't a one man show, you need to talk to all of the investigators and witnesses involved.

All in all they showed us about 25 minutes of one case, the number of cases is still anyone’s guess but the man hosting the demonstration said that what they showed was only a small portion of the one case, since we can only guess that the husband was not the murder and there was more to the crime.  

L.A.  Noire seems to be shaping up quite nicely, and it appears that Team Bondi, the studio behind the game’s development, has brought a unique experience to the usual Rockstar fare. The game is due out on May 17th on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and has prompted me to take two vacation days from work in order to enjoy it (though that will hardly be enough time), it has now become my most anticipated game of 2011 (previously Uncharted 3) and you can bet I’ll be getting a review up as soon as I am able. In the meantime however you can enter our PAXEast contest, the swag bag prize contains two posters for L.A. Noire, a bunch of stickers with the game’s logo, and a T-Shirt.

I have said this before, but I will say again; Twisted Pixel is, without a doubt, my favorite among the small development studios. Every game they release is full of great retro gameplay and ridiculous humor; even the most common complaint, which is that the games they make are a little repetitive, is often a mute point since they are still fun and funny. I may not have played The Maw since I finished the last of the expansions, but I do still play ‘Splosion Man and Comic Jumper if, for nothing else, to show my friends what they are missing by not purchasing these great games. Their newest title, The Gunstringer, may just be their most ambitious title yet as it will be the first game released on Xbox Live Arcade to fully utilize the Kinect motion sensor.  

Hitting the maximum number of targets and going for the highest bonus is the key after you eat a taco. The better your score, the better the audience reaction will be.

For years the guys at Twisted Pixel had been wanting to do a game in which you controlled a marionette, and at a meeting with Microsoft when they first saw the Kinect in action they knew this was the device they were waiting for; but when it came to pitching a potential game to Microsoft they didn’t have any details past “marionette”. The key inspiration finally hit them when they noticed a painting of a skeletal gunslinger hanging on the wall of the room in which the meeting was taking place, and it was from there that The Gunstringer was born.  

Massive wild west marionette destruction is at hand. And with the Kinect, your finger is the firearm.

The Gunstringer combines modern motion controls, retro gameplay, and more imagination than most of the overrated triple AAA titles and pretentious indie titles combined. You control The Gunstringer, who has recently returned from the grave to seek vengeance on his former posse, which includes the usual assortment of wild west never-do-wells such as an oil tycoon, a old Chinese sage, a voodoo priestess, a brothel owner, and a wavy tube man (the kind you see in used car lots, only with a cowboy hat). Gameplay is very reminiscent of the classic shooter Space Harrier, though a better analogy may be Sin & Punishment for the Nintendo 64. The Gunstringer will run along a set path filled with obstacles which need to be maneuvered around; with your left hand you will control him similar to a marionette, moving him left and right and lifting your hand up to make him jump. To shoot all you need to do is make a gun with your fingers and point it at the enemies to highlight them, once you have highlighted between one and six enemies you cock your hand upwards as if your gun-finger is recoiling from a shot and The Gunstringer will dispatch all highlighted enemies. You also have special attacks, the one in the demo I played involved crushing you hand down at the screen to call down a giant hand to pummel your enemies (one of the puppeteers I imagine) and I hear there will be others, but all will involve simple motions to activate. It’s an extremely simple control scheme that the Kinect is known for utilizing, and it’s damn fun.  

Actually, forget the finger, I'm gonna go to the toystore, get a cowboy cap gun and do this shit right!

The game is done in the style of a marionette performance. It begins with a live action sequence of people showing up for an evening at the theatre, the whole thing was filmed at a famous theatre in Austin, Texas using a gathering of Twisted Pixel fans (I would have loved to be there, even though I hate being on camera). As the crowd gets ready for the show you see the performers getting everything set up behind the scenes, carrying The Gunstringer to his starting position on the stage, sitting him inside his grave and covering him with gravel and dirt. From there you need to lift your left hand to raise him from his grave and begin the tutorial where you learn the basics of moving and shooting. The Kinect works surprisingly well, this is actually the second game I played for the Kinect that seemed responsive and not overly gimmicky (the first being Dance Central). I was playing on a 15 inch TV and only about a foot and a half from the system while sitting down and had almost no problems with gameplay. It is astonishing that Twisted Pixel seems better at programming for the device than even Microsoft does. After you learn the basics The Gunstringer runs into the first member of the posse, Wavy Tube Man (posse secretary and events coordinator) beginning the first boss fight in which The Gunstringer takes cover while Wavy Tube Man flails around trying to smash him. The cover mechanic works surprisingly well, proving some nice gunfights later in the demo while not putting The Gunstringer at too much of an advantage.  

Greatest.... Boss.... Ever!!!!!!

After each segment you are treated to a reaction from the audience; cheers, boos, and two random men bro-hugging are just some of the reactions you will see, followed by a quote from a critic’s review. I played the first two scenes and was quite impressed with my experience, so much so that I will be actually purchasing a Kinect entirely for this game. I am dead serious. The game doesn’t have a set release date yet, but I heard we should be seeing it in 2011, here’s hoping sooner rather than later.  

And on a final note, Twisted Pixel’s store has the best swag, especially their awesome line of maquettes (of which I have all buy Ms. ‘Splosion Man) so I will definitely be looking forward to what they put out for this (a real marionette would be heavenly). 

DON’T FORGET TO ENTER OUR PAXEAST SWAG BAG GIVAWAY!

Most people on their 21st birthday go out to a bar to drink. I myself had college finals, afterwhich me and some friends tried to go to dinner at a local Frostburg hibachi restaurant, after we found out there was a two hour wait we decided to go to a movie which ended up being sold out. At this point my friends gave up so my 21st birthday ended up being me and my roommate eating Pizza, drinking cider and watching CSI. My bad luck on my 21st birthday pales in comparison to Jackie Estacado’s from 2007′s The Darkness. In the course of just one night he lost two of his friends during a massive gunfight, was set up to be killed by his paranoid adoptive uncle, became bonded to an ancient demon called The Darkness, and had to watch his girlfriend and longtime love Jenny be murdered right in front of him by the man who raised him. Talk about a crappy birthday. It’s been two years since Jackie’s life fell apart and he embraced The Darkness living inside of him. Now he is back to his old mafioso ways and has taken over as the head of the crime family, but a mysterious group of people are after him so they can steal the powers of The Darkness for themselves.  

If you sneak up on your enemies you can grab them with your Demon Arms... This particular fellow is about to have a very bad day...

At the start of the demonstration Jackie’s luck doesn’t seem to have improved, he has been taken captive by the mysterious organization and crucified while a strange device sucked the power of The Darkness right out of him. The first thing I noticed is the radical difference in art styles. The original game had a very gritty, dark and realistic  style, reminiscent of developer Starbreeze’s other title The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The new game features a cell shaded graphic style giving it a more comic book style. The game didn’t look as dark as its predecessor did, but it does a much better job of expressing the series’ comic book roots. After a brief  conversation with the leader of his captors a flashback begins showing Jackie out for dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant, he only just sits down with his two dates when the shooting starts and a van crashes through the window, mutilating Jackie’s leg. One of his henchmen grabs him and begins to drag him through the restaurant while Jackie, now in the player’s control, shoots at the attackers. Anyone who has played the first game will be right at home with the shooting mechanics, which remain a rather standard fare; right trigger shoots, left trigger aims (or fires the left weapon when two guns are drawn). Jackie is almost free from the restaurant when a gas explosion engulfs him and the remainder of his men, ending the first part of the flashback.  

Jackie isn't having a good night...but his isn't gonna be as bad as this guys.

Back at the torture party our busted antagonist (who looks a bit like a post car wreck Crispin Glover) explains that Jackie must give up The Darkness of his own free will, and if he doesn’t someone else close to him will die. Upon his refusal a large fellow is brought in to help persuade Jackie a little more, and after a few painful looking interaction it’s back to the gameplay. At this point Jackie is still a gimp, surrounded by enemies and potentially on fire, all hope seems lost when Jackie finally manages to crawl outside and into some shade, unleashing The Darkness, which proceeds to dish out its usual brand of slaughter. Jackie has his leg restored by The Darkness, which remarks in a creepy and familiar voice, “Death is not an option”; thankfully Faith No More singer Mike Patton returns to voice the title demon. Now we get to take a stab at using The Darkness itself in combat, more specifically the new and improve Demon Arms. Now you have the ability to manipulate more objects in the background, from poles and other sharp metal objects which can be thrown to dispatch foes in many horrifying ways to car doors which can be used as shields and mobile cover to protect you from enemy fire before being thrown. You can also grab enemies from behind (sometimes from the front if they are distracted enough) and perform grizzly execution moves. Jackie fights his way down the street to his limo only to be blown into a building by an explosion, again being put at the mercy of one of the enemies. It is now that Jackie’s old pal The Darkling makes a reappearance, saving him from his would be killer and giving him an uzi and some ammo to help him continue to fight. Instead of having multiple Darklings like the first game, now you only have the one. Instead of just being used as gun fodder though this one is pretty useful, he will not only attack and distract enemies but also grab ammo for Jackie in the middle of conflicts. He will also gain new abilities along with Jackie as the game progresses I am sure, but no details were given. The final area of the demo is an all too familiar subway tunnel, now you need to start combining gunplay and Jackie’s Darkness powers. This is again very familiar to anyone who has played the original game, you have a few new powers, but at the core it is still the same.  

The shootout in the subway gets pretty intense, but you must be cognisant of the overhead fluorescent lights which will ruin The Darkness's day.

I wont spoil how the demo ends, but it’s looking like things aren’t going to be any less tragic for our anti-hero this time around. The game is still early in development, but it is still looking remarkably well polished. The first game had some RPG elements in the gameplay, mainly side quests and dialogue trees, and while none of those were present in the demo I played and I couldn’t get a solid comment as to their inclusion I have a feeling that those elements will be returning. Major story details are still scarce, but fans of the comics will be happy to know that Paul Jenkins, writer for many of the original comics and also the first game, is returning to write the sequel. I played the game on an Xbox 360, and I know a PS3 version is in the works. I would also expect a PC version will be available. No release date has been set, but I think we can expect the game sometime early in 2012. I was a huge fan of the original and cannot wait to get my hands on the full game.  

As a final note I am going to just say that the original game is only $4.99 for a used copy on gamestop.com, so there is absolutely no excuse why you haven’t bought one of the most original shooters from the last 5 years. At the very least you can watch the entirety of To Kill A Mockingbird inside the game, that film is a classic and should be worth 5 bucks alone!

THQ is starting to become a company known for the high quality original IPs they release on a regular basis. Unfortunately they are also known for releasing fantastic games that don’t sell near the same numbers as the substandard rehash sequels put out by some of their competitors.

It looks like all this may be about to change however as Danny Bilson, an executive at THQ, told Eurogamer that Homefront, their upcoming first person shooter, has managed to score a reasonably impressive 200,000 confirmed pre-orders in the United States alone. When you think about these numbers in terms of juggernaut franchises like Halo, Gears of War or Call of Duty the numbers may not seem as impressive; but for an all new IP without two years of hype those numbers are pretty good.

Bilson also went on to address the rumors going around that THQ was planning on disbanding Kaos Studios following the game’s release. While neither confirming or denying the rumor he did state that “A lot of it has to do with how successful it is and how strong that core team comes out on the other side,”. Bilson also went on to say ”I love those guys. I’ve worked very closely with them on this game for years. There’s nothing disrespectful going on at all. We’re trying to do what’s best for everyone.”

You can read his statements in their entirety over at Eurogamer.

I can’t say I was the biggest fan of Kaos Studios’ last game, Frontlines: Fuel of War, but that was more because of it being nearly unplayable on Xbox Live; however I never like to see any developer close down, especially with a series as promising as Homefront only weeks from release. Fortunately the game is gearing up to be a big release for THQ, and they didn’t even need to package it with another full priced game in order to convince people to try it like they did with Darksiders.

Homefront is an upcoming first person shooter developed by Kaos Studios. The game is set in a disturbingly plausible world in which the United States is on the brink of collapse following an invasion from a unified Korean empire. The player takes on the role of a soldier in an underground American resistance based out of Colorado as they try to free their homeland from the oppressive invaders. If that story reminds you of the classic film Red Dawn in any way that is because it has been written by John Milius, the writer of Red Dawn and co-writer of Apocalypse Now. The game is due out March 15th and, as you can probably guess, I am one of those 200,000 people who pre-ordered it so you can expect a full review in the weeks following its release.

Original Source: Eurogamer

Brink is part disaster movie, part FPS, with a simple story: a man-made continent was created to shelter humanity against the flooding Earth. The authorities quickly realize they have more people than they can control, and the entire continent is on the brink of civil war (hey, I just got why they call it Brink!) The campaign lets players go through both sides of the war, and can be experienced completely cooperative with up to eight players online, sixteen players in total for multiplayer matches.

But what makes Brink stand out from other FPS team-only series like Battlefield or Team Fortress? Brink changes up the formula two ways. First, there are main objectives you need to accomplish such as defending the VIP or destroying the barricade. But Brink also allows players to accomplish secondary objectives. The main objective is still to guard the VIP, but capturing that command post from the enemy will allow the team to have another spawn zone. The second change to the formula is vertical combat. Brink allows the player multiple paths to your objective. It also introduces what’s called the SMART system. This allows the jumping/vaulting part of the game to be controlled automatically. You can easily climb over railings, jump from one floor to another, scale walls, etc, simply by sprinting up to whatever it is you need to scale/vault over. No other buttons needed!

The AI for the SMART system performs exactly like the name says.

There are four character classes in Brink: Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Operative. Each of them play out like they would in standard class based games like Battlefield. Each class has their own specialties, whether it’s handing out ammo or reviving fallen teammates. But what makes Brink standout is the RPG influence. With every level your character gains, you will be able to purchase feats to further your abilities such increased weapon damage or the ability to use gadgets. You’ll also be able to customize your favorite weapons with attachments such as scopes, shotgun attachments, grenade launchers, and a variety of other things.

Just a few examples of the different face gear for your character

Customizations don’t end there! Characters can also be tailored right down to the different facial structures, tattoos, clothing, and even the voice of the character—think Sims. But instead of having just one character, you can create up to sixteen individual accounts—all with different experience levels. So you can have a main character that you build for an assault that can be at, say, level 8, but if your friend recently got the game, you can make a brand new character at level 1. This also allows players to build different characters, or even play different factions.

So why would having different characters at different levels be important? Brink’s developers pointed out to us during the hands-on demo that the enemy AI will level up as your character levels up, and will able to have access to more weapons and abilities that the player would have access to. Although we’ve seen adaptable leveling with AI’s in such games like Mass Effect, they’re not normally found in action shooters. That’s where Brink stands out in the FPS-saturated market. This feature alone gives the player a constant challenge as enemies will get tougher and smarter throughout the campaign.

Brink is everything you’re looking for in a multiplayer game. It mixes up constant team deathmatch with objective based battles, and we cannot wait for the full version to launch later this year!