Look at that. Beautiful! Not necessarily the graphics engine, but the actual airplane. There’s nothing quite like the Warthog, a close support aircraft made for the unglamorous job of kicking up dirt. Anyone can makes a sleek jet with the sexy spaceship lines of an F-16 or F-22. Whatever. Give me the unique ungainly aesthetic of that big-nacelled beauty any day.
That’s a screenshot from A-10C Warthog, a flight sim released as part of Eagle Dynamics’ Digital Combat Series, which previously featured the the Russian Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter. Before that, Eagle was known for their Su-27 sims published by SSI, which were a paean to Russia’s versatile Su-27 fighter/bomber. In those games I simultaneously felt like I was in over my head, but in good hands. Eagle Dynamics made sophisticated, measured, detailed flight sims with long shallow learning curves doled out over a series of missions, and a scenario editor that meant lots of user-made missions. I couldn’t be happier that they’re still hard at work.
A-10C Warthog is out today. Read more about it here and buy it here for $60.
So far (I’m several acts into Chapter Two), [Bulletstorm] has been one long relentlessly linear hallway, about 20 to 60 feet wide. It doesn’t matter what the environment is. Underground cavern, desert landscape, sprawling alien city–it’s all just 20 to 60 foot hallways, peppered with things to hide behind. And sometimes, just to mix it up, things that explode.
Sometimes the game decides that you are getting a little too crazy with that 20 to 60 feet of wiggle room, and the freedom to traverse it at the pace of your choosing. It will then make you play a rail shooter level. I’ve done three of them so far. They are about as much fun as rail shooters tend to be, which is to say: not even a little. One of them was visually spectacular. Imagine a QTE directed by Roland Emmerich. So over the top that they’ll have to invent a new word for “over the top,” so that everyone can understand how much more over the top it is compared to other things that are over the top. But here on my side of the screen, it was still just a boring QTE.
Sometimes the game presents you with QTE “shoot the target” events that are so important, so vital that you not miss, that the game even aims for you. I swear I am not making that up.
Like the environments, the game itself is unwaveringly linear and scripted. It underscores this by wrenching control of the game away from you constantly, to show you something important, or to show you something unimportant, or sometimes just to play a line of dialog. Sometimes, as though to offer reassurance that it really does trust you not to screw up the carefully scripted bits with your dirty mouselooking hands, the game gives you the opportunity to give up control of the camera willingly. An on-screen prompt will appear, and if you quickly press and hold RMB, the camera will slowly pan away to look at whatever the game wants you to see, and then it rewards you with some points.
When you do have control of the camera, it’s often very obvious what the game wants you to do. Oh, I’m supposed to kick that guy into those electrical wires. I guess that guy is camped behind those cacti because I’m supposed to grab him with the Leash and pull him onto them. Ah, a courtyard filled with exploding barrels. I’ll bet a whole bunch of guys are about to run out and try to hide behind them. Yep, here they come. None of it feels spontaneous or creative. It’s less like playing a game, and more like acting out a part in a play. On the rare occasions when you die (rare because the game is quite easy so far) and have to replay an area, the heavy-handed railroading becomes even more painfully obvious. I question the game’s replayability, because it somehow manages to not feel fresh the first time.
Okay, that was cute and well worth futzing with the age gate (no one under 17 should see carnage like that). This tower defense game from developer iFun4All (get it?) is out today for the PSP, suggesting once again that it’s not yet time to put your PSP in the closet.
According to a press release from Nintendo, here are the games that will be available to round out the $250 you’ll spend on the Nintendo 3DS when it debuts on March 27:
Pilotwings Resort from Nintendo
Steel Diver from Nintendo
Nintendogs + cats from Nintendo
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition from Capcom
The Sims 3 from EA
Madden NFL Football from EA Sports
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D from Konami
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars from LucasArts
Ridge Racer 3D from Namco Bandai
Super Monkey Ball 3D from Sega
Bust-A-Move Universe from Square-Enix
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles from Tecmo/Koei.
Asphalt 3D from Ubisoft
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D from Ubosoft
Rayman 3D from Ubisoft
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars from Ubisoft
That’s quite a spread. Even if there’s nothing there for you, you jaded hardcore gamer, it’s still a strong line-up. Strong enough to push a $250 doo-dad? We’ll see. Also, note how Ubisoft is going all-in, as if they were never even burned by the Wii.
The multiplayer in Killzone 3 is just like real life in that you arrive pretty much naked, you will be confused early and often, and everyone else will have better stuff than you. I can’t help you with real life. But I can help you with Killzone 3.
After the jump, ten things you should know going into Killzone 3’s multiplayerContinue reading →
Look at my little sackbot up there, caught in the gears. You’d think that would make me sad. It doesn’t. He’s fine. The gears are just speeding him on his way. I jumped into them on purpose after a creature hinted that I should take “a leap of faith”. I was doing this so I could “defeat the Red Menace” at some point. You read that right. Red Menace. Did I find this disturbing? Nah. You see, once you encounter your first swastika in LBP2, you can pretty much handle a little sackbot communism.
I got dipped into a level about shark attacks, and I immediately got excited. I started spinning up possible headers as the level loaded. Something about a bigger boat would be obvious, and maybe too easy. Something from the Indianapolis monologue perhaps? Or how about swimmin’ with bow-legged women? No. That’s weird.
Then the level started and it was awfulness. Just gigantic sharks attacking and my little sack dude screaming his head off in this awful manner. I shudder thinking about it. I finally figured out how to use the grappling hook to get away from the sharks and…what? A row of collectible object bubbles over my head, out of my reach, and smack dab in the center is a Nazi symbol. Here? Really?
I left feeling crappy, wondering what I was supposed to do. Report it? Give the creator a pointed review? I don’t know. It was just so out of left field. I waxed poetic about the “community” feel of this section of LBP2 previously. Doesn’t that word also suggest responsibility for those who play in the community?
I ended up just moving on and found the nice Red Menace level pictured. Actually it’s called The Fearsome Challenge. It was neither, truth be told, but it was a relief after the other level. Which I will not link to. But what I should have done, or should do…I suspect that will continue to nag at me.
It’s a big week for shooters, mainly because I’m eager to see how Bulletstorm turns out. But of course a lot of you are looking foward to this week’s Killzone 3, which mystifies me since I’ve been playing it. I just don’t understand why the latest Killzone has been so well received. Is it me? I can barely keep my eyes open playing through the single-player campaign. It’s like everything wrong with shooters, wrapped up in one blandly pretty, entirely derivative, noisy, silly, unspectacular, tedious package. What an honest-to-goodness chore of a game. That said, once it comes out, I look forward to the multiplayer mode called warzone, carried over from the first game, in which teams move through a series of random mission types on a big map. The dynamic ebb and flow of warzone’s gameplay reminds me of Section 8.
(Speaking of which, when is Section 8: Prejudice getting a release date? I see a nice big Section 8-sized hole in the gap between Homefront’s March 15th release and Brink’s May 17th release.)
On the Nintendo DS, Radiant Historia gives Dragon Quest VI a run for it’s money when it comes to long drawn-out JRPGs. Six hours in, I love how the time-travel gimmick parcels out bits of evolving storyline. But it could use gameplay beyond scooping enemies around on a 4×4 grid. I find myself going back to Dragon Quest VI because I play RPGs for the RPGing and not the story, no matter how cleverly it’s told.
Finally, de Blob 2 is out this week. The first de Blob, a Wii exclusive, was a real gem in spite of having to yank the Wiimote to jump. What a lovely collage of color and music! I look forward to enjoying the sequel on a next-gen system without having to spazz out with a Wiimote.
Christien Murawski pointed me towards this Actual Videogame based on The Great Gatsby. I wonder if it explains Gatsby’s missing years. But I was far more impressed with the above videogame someone linked in the comments section. Awesome.
I hate (i.e. love) to out my friends, but I have to share this message I just got over the Playstation Network from someone who shall remain anonymous because he’s normally a bigshot RPG writer who specializes in PC games.
dude — if you still have LBP 1 would you mind hoping on for a sec and “hearting” me as a player? I literally need just one more heart for the platinum trophy. Yes, I have become “that guy”
I happily complied by loading up Little Big Planet, giving him a heart, and then admiring his platinum trophy.
In not necessarily but possibly related news, congratulations to Stefan “Desslock” Janicki for his first platinum trophy on the Playstation Network. It wasn’t that long ago that Stefan, a longtime champion of hardcore PRGs on the PC, derided console systems as the platform of “magic mushroom games”. Now he’s the proud owner of the platinum trophy for 100% completion of Little Big Planet.
Sony’s trophy system is wonderful for how it recognizes the relative difficulty of different achievements by awarding trophies of different colors. I’ve got plenty of bronze and silver trophies, and even a few golds. But as a guy who has no platinum trophies and a predilection for the Xbox 360 controller, I have a lot of respect for those of you who’ve reached for the platinum.
As someone who has been exceedingly vocal about his difficulties watching movies that show children in peril, I can totally get where this guy, Geoff, is coming from as he tries to watch the Dead Island game trailer. I’m a sensitive and protective father too. I can get past this if the filmmakers know what they’re doing, but I’m always going to be more uncomfortable watching something with a kid in danger than I was before I became a father.
I love this guy’s reaction–aside from the Polish slurs. Dude, lay off the Poles!–but it wasn’t my own. Is that because I’m father to a son? I doubt it. I think it has more to do with the fact that this is completely haunting and earned my appreciation, as hard as it is for me to watch. It is one of the most beautifully edited pieces of work I’ve seen in a long time. It’s heartbreaking. The image of the girl on her dad’s back will not soon leave me.
Still, I respect your reaction, brother. I’ve been there. Hope I can talk to you someday and let you know that while your Dad-ness forced you to miss beating Dead Rising 2, the Case West DLC is totally SFD.
Every now and again I’ll come across a level whose sole purpose is to share an element of design with the LBP2 community. Sometimes the creator does this to get some love (hearts, thumbs up) from the players. Sometimes this is done for the sole purpose of sharing something new, at least as far as I can tell. Today’s level, LBP2 Bounce Pads, seems to be the latter. Before you get through the starting gate a warning pops up announcing, “Please note this level is just a demonstration of bounce pads.” What follows is a pretty nifty demonstration. You bounce all around collecting bubbles and racing against a clock. In the screenshot above my sackbot is bouncing at hyper-speed between floor and ceiling pads. At the end of the level, you get another text bubble.
I allow this level to be copied so you can “object capture” the bounce pads. PLEASE DO NOT REPUBLISH MY CREATION!!! Thanks.
I can’t say I really understand what all that is about, as far as getting the difference between “object capture” and publishing the designer’s creation, because I have absolutely no understanding of how any of these creation tools work. But I like this sharing aspect, and I wonder if it is, indeed, just for the joy of sharing, or if there are pins or trophies involved. Doesn’t really matter. This was a cute little diversion either way. I’m just curious.
I’m also increasingly pleased with the fact that the creators of LPB2 decided to label the area where you experience these levels “Community”.
I’m not up on my Star Wars lore, since I lost interest forever as of about half way into the text crawl that opens Phantom Menace. But apparently an evil grey duck named Darth Sidious (pictured) figures prominently. Lucasarts announced today that he’ll be an unlockable character in Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. You can jump into an insufferable Flash game featuring Mr. Sidious by going here, hitting enter, typing “darkside”, and then hitting enter again. Quack quack!
Arcen Games’ Chris Park (i.e. the dude who made AI War and published Tidalis) has posted an extensive update on his next game, A Valley Without Wind. It’s mainly a bunch of technical stuff, but it’ll give you a sense for how the game is coming. To get really excited about A Valley Without Wind, here’s the product page.
Park has a penchant for long explanations, which are great for those of us already sold on his games. I love his patch notes for AI War, for instance. But he needs a more concise sales pitches for the uninitiated than that entire page. For instance, the answer to “What is A Valley Without Wind?” should be “a procedurally generated infinite open-world post-apocalyptic fantasy survival RPG with permadeath from the guy who made AI War”. Or, to put it in less wonky terms, Din’s Curse meets Minecraft.
The current schedule is to make an open alpha available to the public next month, with a final release later in the year.
Felicia Day reveals in this Jimmy Fallon appearance that she’s been training with daggers for months, all in the service of promoting Dragon Age II, which comes out on March 8. Miss Day has written and starred in a webisodic elf saga, shot in the woods around LA, which won’t be out until this summer.
Telltale’s upcoming Jurassic Park game features the best product placement a shaving cream company could ever hope for.
The game storyline picks up on the stormy night as Jurassic Park began to fall apart — when Dennis Nedry stole a Barbasol can full of invaluable dinosaur embryos. He died trying to deliver it. He never knew it contained a tracking device. That same night, a desperate smuggler infiltrates Isla Nublar, hunting the canister and its precious cargo. She collides — literally — with park staff trying to evacuate. They are trapped together as the park collapses, left behind with the newly-freed dinosaurs. When InGen launches a perilous rescue operation, mercenaries, saboteurs, and survivors are thrown together in the struggle to escape the island. They confront T. Rex, Velociraptors and other dinosaurs in spectacular showdowns. As human agendas clash, secrets of the park are exposed, and a new threat emerges: an eerie, nocturnal predator stalking the group, hunting them relentlessly across the island.
