Archive for February 1st, 2011
In the third world in the Little Big Planet 2 story levels, you save these little robots who’ve been kidnapped and hypnotized. Once you get them to the rescue point, their eyes turn red. Which is kind of weird. Why do they get evil red eyes when you bring them to safety? And now hey’re attacking me!
Oh, wait, those aren’t evil red eyes. They’re hearts! The little robots are in love with me. It’s cute overload!
My recollection of the first Little Big Planet is that the included levels — you know, the storyline — were no great shakes, particularly compared to the creative community-made stuff. But I suspect the reverse is true in Little Big Planet 2. I’m impressed with a lot of the community stuff I’ve seen, but I find myself wanting to go back to the world that came with the game. Maybe it’s just that those levels are more thematically consistent and in-depth. Maybe it’s that Little Big Planet 2 feels like a complete platformer instead of just a concept, which was my impression of the first game. I get the sense that developer Media Molecule woke up to the fact that they’re competing with Ratchet & Clank, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and so forth. Maybe it’s just that jumping into a player-made level is always going to be a bit of a crap shoot. Or maybe it’s another example of how sequels in videogaming are almost always better than their predecessors.
But for whatever reason, I think I’m done with community levels for a while. I need to save more of these robots.
Developer Relic and publisher THQ are cancelling Company of Heroes Online before it even leaves beta. This free-to-play microtransaction game, which is entirely separate from Company of Heroes, has been playable for the past five months. Players were encouraged to spend money on microtransactions with the understanding that progress would not be reset when the game went live. Which, technically, is true. Killing the entire game isn’t really the same thing as resetting the servers.
For players who spent money in Company of Heroes Online, Relic has offered, well, nothing. The pleasure of having played the game, I suppose. You can read the official announcement, followed by the wailing and gnashing of teeth, here.
(Thanks — and condolences — to Nathan.)
I’m no fighting game aficionado, but I know what a compromise it is to play with a gamepad, particularly an Xbox 360 controller. So last year, I was delighted to get one of Mad Catz’ Tournament Edition FightSticks for a review I was writing. What a difference it makes slapping the buttons with your whole hand, and palming the ball on that stick, smacking it around as befits an arcade machine. Fighting games shouldn’t be polite fingerwork.
Well, I was mostly delighted. The problem is that you can’t have just one of these sticks. No one’s going to want to play a fighting game with you if you’ve got one of those beasts perched in your lap while you hand him a lousy gamepad.
So I ended up buying a second one. This means the Chick household has a Super Street Fighter IV branded stick and a Marvel vs. Capcom branded stick. None of us knows what we’re doing, but it sure is a tactile experience. And it forces me to play fighting games, because there’s no way I’m going to let something that costs $150 sit unused in a closet!
Now Mad Catz is releasing a stick specifically branded for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which comes out in two weeks. I don’t want to cast any aspersions on whatever aesthetic decisions Mad Catz and Capcom made, but that’s got to be the most downbeat Tournament Edition FightStick I’ve ever seen. It’s dark and somber, without colored buttons, which is the exact opposite of the cheery sticks I’ve got here and a really poor fit with the crazy splashy bright overbearing Marvel vs. Capcom 3. But, hey, it’s an Official Branded Product and if you’re going to spend $150 on a toy like this, you might as well have the faceplate of your choice on it.
Now you can try Cities in Motion, Paradox’s upcoming strategy game about public transportation in Europe, in the demo open beta released today. Indulge your inner transport tycoon in one of the game’s four cities and one of its 12 scenarios.
The Open Beta version of Cities in Motion includes the city of Vienna in sandbox mode along with one scenario — ‘Part with Petrol’. The Beta will run until 20th February 2011.
To get into the beta, you’ll have to wade onto Fileplanet for this 300MB download. The full game is due out first quarter of this year.
I love that content is still going strong for The Quest, an epic and epically retro RPG for the iPhone. This just in for your character:
Just when you thought you could enjoy your honeymoon on the beautiful Island of Buyan, you learn its Prince has been assassinated and the artifact providing the island’s ancient defense of invisibility has been blown up. It looks like some powerful and evil force is attempting to control Buyan and enslave its people. Grab your weapons, Hero, it’s time to fight for freedom again. Your prize could be the throne of Buyan.
Man, that sucks. Dude was on his honeymoon?
The Quest – Hero of Lukomorye*, Part V: Island of Buyan is available for $3 from the iTunes store.
* Have fun trying to say that out loud.
MAG is one of those games that’s a real selling point for a particular system. If you’re a fan of, say, Planetside or Joint Operations, you understand what a difference it makes when a battle isn’t limited to 16, or 32, or even 64 players. So you need a Playstation 3, because that’s the only system where you can play MAG, the latest best option for such larger scale battles. And, yes, it makes a difference.
On the occasion of MAG’s one year anniversary, Sony’s blog has posted a few tidbits about the game, including plans for branding:
Originally, we had planned to make MAG a part of the SOCOM universe. In fact, its first working title was “SOCOM: MAG.” As the game began to take shape, however, it became apparent that what MAG was growing into was much different than SOCOM. The gameplay design, while still somewhat-tactical, continued to become less “SOCOM-like.” The emphasis on character progression and large-scale multiplayer battles with three completely different PMCs sealed the deal, and MAG happily spun off into its own universe.
I don’t think MAG is hurting for players, but I suspect it would have been a bigger commercial success if it had tied directly into the Playstation’s SOCOM community.
