I flew a helicopter tonight. Yes, it was to no avail. The thing was impossible to control, and flying it did me no more good than running would have done. Or keeping my cool little jetpack on. But now I can say I’ve flown a helicopter in one of these levels. That’s never happened before. You know what else has never happened before? I’ve never gotten this direction from one of the creatures in a level:
“Kill those things.”
Whoa. I don’t recall seeing the word ‘kill’ in any part of LBP2 as yet. Maybe I just missed it. But it struck me here. True, the killing in this latest level, outbreak 1, consists entirely of firing what I think is a paint gun, but still, I was given the directive to kill. That caught me up short for a moment. My little sackbot is now a killer. I will have to take stock of that.
I’ll let you know when, and if, I get a machine gun.
Last week, Atari said they would implement fixes for Test Drive Unlimited 2’s clubhouses, a cornerstone of the game’s social advancement, on Monday evening. Which they did. Briefly.
Earlier today we made an attempt to bring Club functionality online, but due to a new issue being discovered, we took it down immediately to get things fixed. At this time we don’t have an exact ETA of when Clubs will become available, though its a top priority and we’re working to get them back into the game ASAP.
The short version: “Never mind.”
Furthermore, the multiplayer races are still borked. I find it hard to believe that when I choose the blanket overall option to join a multiplayer match, there simply isn’t one. Seriously? There isn’t a single multiplayer match you can put me into? The game has been out a week and I’ve been unable to play it multiplayer, either as a head-to-head race or in one of the nifty cooperative modes that I’ll supposedly be doing with the other members of my club once the padlocks are taken off the clubhouse.
I love what this game is trying to do. I look forward to some indeterminate point in the future when it actually does it.
You can’t swing a dismembered necromorph without hitting a blandly positive review of Dead Space 2. But I’d like to direct you to two more guarded Dead Space 2 reviews.
The first is from Thomas Grip, whose thoughts on Dead Space 2 are far more informed, informative, and insightful than what most of us reviewers write, thanks to Grip’s unique perspective on horror games. He’s the co-founder of Frictional Games, the developer of Amnesia: the Dark Descent. That game is very different from Dead Space 2, although they’re both “horror” games. One is an adventure game with some unique gameplay mechanics intended to express the genre of choice. The other is just another expensive looking shooter in which stuff jumps out at you a lot. Grip’s comments make me wish more developers would speak frankly about other videogames.
And speaking of what most of us reviewers write, you can read my review of Dead Space 2 here. Thumbs down, by the way.
(Thanks to Paul for the link to Grip’s Dead Space 2 article!)
When you die in Demigod, you get put in a penalty box. You’re looking down from heaven, inert and wistful, while cool stuff happens underneath you, without you. It’s like The Lovely Bones.
After the jump, League of Legends is like A Beautiful Mind meets Confessions of a ShopaholicContinue reading →
That’s my character in DC Universe Online. She looks that way because I tailored her to look that way. Nice and normal and unassuming. But don’t be fooled. She’s decked out in fancy gear. Being in the endgame, I’m even grinding for specific bits of gear, which seem to come at the rate of about one piece every week or so if I log in to play a few instances every day or so.
(Psst, Sony, can you hurry up with the new content due this week?)
But every bit of gear you find belongs to a specific costume set and therefore has a specific look, usually outrageous. So what does a character look like when you don’t carefully monitor your style? What if you left your appearance up to the game?
Hey, look, it’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (pictured?). Which, yep, is another fighting game. What sets this one apart from other fighting games is that, uh, it’s more colorful? I’m actually not sure. I’m going to have to consult with an expert. Meanwhile, I intend to keep mashing buttons until I actually like it.
Also out this week are two (2) games that are fifteen (15) years old, but available for the first (1st) time on a handheld system. Dragon Quest VI: First Time in America is a reissue of a Dragon Quest game for the Nintendo DS. The twist in this Dragon Quest game is that it was only released in Japan. Tactics Ogre: Never Let Me Go is an updated remake of Tactics Ogre. I’m sure they’re both great, because a game’s got to be pretty good to convince a publisher it’s still worth selling fifteen years later.
Enter the Void director Gasper Noe is nothing if not in-your-face. Find out how that goes over with us in this week’s podcast. Alternatively, fast forward to the 58-minute mark for this week’s 3×3. Our favorite non-faked physical bits by actors.
