A friend once described Vegas as “Disneyland for adults meets Wal-Mart”. I don’t get it, but I agree with the sentiment, which is to say Vegas is weird and slightly icky and it’s hard to explain why because it’s trying so hard to do things to make you like it.
I’d like to thank the fine folks at Blue Castle, now an internal team at Capcom, for making Dead Rising 2. I haven’t been to Vegas since playing Dead Rising 2. But I’m here now for a press event and I can’t help but look around at all the kitsch and evaluate its effectiveness against zombies. Thanks, Blue Castle, for making Vegas interesting again.
Gears of War is one of my favorite franchises. And one of my favorite things about it is a specific part of the story. But to talk about that would be to talk about spoilers.
So, after the jump, spoilers ahoy! Continue reading →
Welcome to the inaugural Help Wanted, a program sponsored by the National Foundation for the Preservation of Old Videogames. Every week, I invite you to join me to play a game that’s been out for more than a month (i.e. it’s old). It could be any genre, on any platform, and it might not even be very good. The game will be announced on Monday. The playing will take place on Wednesday, hopefully with help from you. A write-up will be posted on Thursday, and I hope you’ll to share your impressions in the comments section if you joined us.
This week, join me at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern for Red Dead Redemption. No paid DLC is required, although you’ll want to download the Outlaws to the End co-op mission DLC, which is free. We’ll mess around in Free Roam, maybe take out some of the gang hideouts, and then try some of the co-op missions. Ideally, I’d like to beat all six co-op missions to unlock the advanced versions. After that, time allowing, we can repair to some head-to-head games. Later in the evening, I intend to try the co-op zombie mode from Undead Nightmares, which is paid DLC you should have if you own Red Dead Redemption. Undead Nightmares belongs up there with Dead Rising, Dead Island, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Space Pirates and Zombies for its canny ability to translate zombie lore into gameplay.
To join us on Wednesday night, send a message to the gamertag “tomchick” on Xbox Live and I’ll invite you into our free roam session. From there, we can form posses and split off into separate missions as needed. Hope to see you Wednesday, pardner*!
* I promise I won’t be talking like that over voice chat.
FIFA 12, a Forumula 1 racing game, is out this week. And X-Men Destiny, a DIY mutant game from the creators of Too Human. And an RTS based on Game of Thrones from the creators of Bloodbowl. And a standalone follow-up to the fantasy dungeon sim Dungeons, called Dark Lord, from the creators of Dungeons. And finally the bundled remasters of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for the Playstation 3.
Don’t worry, next week could be a little brutal.
Is Kevin Smith’s Red State a horror movie? A showcase for actors like Michael Park, John Goodman, and Kerry Bishe? A polemic about religion and government? A combination of all those things? We have a pretty broad three-way split on this movie, ranging from a conditional thumbs up to one of us being offended on multiple fronts. Then at the 1:04 mark, for this week’s 3×3, we discuss scenes we wish had been in movies.
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