Hey, it’s a new Call of Juarez game from developer Techland and publisher Ubisoft! The success of Red Dead Redemption must mean the Old West the new hotness. Let’s see what the press release says in advance of EGM’s upcoming cover story:
Call of Juarez: The Cartel is set in present day and brings the best elements of the Wild West to a new and modern setting. As a first person shooter with an immersive and mature story, players can expect to embark on a journey like no other — one that will take them from the heart of modern day Los Angeles, California to Juarez, Mexico.
Just five more sections to play and I’ll have finished Lost Planet 2 on hard, which unlocks the insane difficulty level. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how easy it is to get co-op games going. I just boot up the level I need to play, and within a few minutes, other players have joined. More than six months after its release, could it be that Lost Planet 2 still has a thriving co-op community? It certainly looks like it.
One of the great things about co-op games is that you can see the weapons you haven’t unlocked when other players use them. While working my way down into the undersea base yesterday, another player was chucking some sort of black hole grenades. I want those! I wonder if he felt the same way about my flamethrower. Ultimately, we’re all here for the unlockables, whether it’s weapons from the slot machine or customizable character bits from leveling up the different factions.
I only recently discovered that some of the training stages aren’t just timed obstacle courses. Lost Planet 2 actually has the equivalent of multiplayer matches against bots, which is a great way to try out new weapons without having to play an entire campaign level. Over six months of championing this game and I had no idea that was in there.
Lost Planet 2’s biggest failing is that you probably have no idea how awesome it is.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 developer Eden has the laid-back caRPG thing down pat, but can they figure out a decent driving model this time? Will Dungeons be a worthy successor to Dungeon Keeper, or will it be another one of those clunky strategy games made by Germans for Germans? These are the pressing questions facing you and your wallet this week.
The problem with that screenshot from my latest level, Punkteparadies, is that it really doesn’t give a proper sense of the speed of the moment. This was my first time driving a vehicle in LBP2. That thing took off like a shot. I had no idea I was in for that kind of speed. But then again, I have no idea what I’m in for in most of these community levels. Because often the directions for said levels are like the following,
Hohe Geschwindigkeit, grosse Hohen und viel Punke. Das findest du alles hier. Wunsche viel Spass!
One of the people I live with happens to know German, having lived there, but she wasn’t home. She would eventually tell me the blurb was talking about great heights and far points or something, but left to my own devices I just decided I was supposed to shoot the glass. When no glass presented itself, I drove that truck. I went straight up a mountainy point–that would be the great height–and got launched into the air. Falling. Falling. Falling. Crushed by truck.
The speed though. Nice. Also I got my 4,000 community bubbles pin in this one. So it worked out.
Dean Takahashi at Venture Beat reports that League of Legends is, like the American economy, now arguably Chinese. Chinese internet company Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Riot Games, which owns and operates League of Legends. The investment is just north of $350 million.
The deal is another validation of the social game business, which is one of the hottest sectors for user growth and acquisitions. And it shows that big international players such as the Chinese internet giant are moving in on the fast-growing market for social games in the U.S.
I love how Takahashi calls League “the video game equivalent of a pick-up basketball game”. As a guy who’s never been involved in a pick-up basketball game, I now understand basketball a little more. Is there a death recap in basketball?
According to the Internets, a sports game called Madden 11 has run a simulation of Sunday’s upcoming big game, Super Bowl XLV (thanks Romans!). In that simulation, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers, 24-20. Apparently the folks at Madden do this every year, with great success:
EA Sports has been using Madden to predict the Super Bowl winner for years now, and the famed football franchise is proving eerily good at it. Not only has Madden correctly picked six of the last seven winners, it’s actually been quite close on the final scores in a few of them.
That particular article, from Yahoo! Games, also reveals that the simulation predicts the game’s MVP. Spoiler alert…it’s Mike Wallace. Mike Wallace? That guy has to be in his nineties. Talk about getting it done! Eat it, Andy Rooney.
So we can all relax and hit the movies on Sunday. Unless Green Bay’s phenomenal quarterback, Aaron Rodgers (pictured), has something to say about it. Wait, the game is inside? Oops. I’m thinking he will.
Activision provided the above graphic to demonstrate, well, I’m not exactly sure what. That everybody loves the FAMAS? That the priority for perk loadouts is being able to run around willy nilly? That n00bs everywhere are using the remote controlled car to get kills? That I’ve made the right choice by uninstalling Black Ops?
The intended effect of this Darkspore trailer is to make you sign up for the beta. EA loves it when you sign up for stuff. Instead, it made me want to play Alien Swarm, League of Legends, or DC Universe, all great ways to meet your group-with-other-people-and-beat-up-stuff-to-level-up needs.
All you have to do to get into the multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II: Retribution is to register on the community site. This will let you try out the all-new Imperial Guard, who seem to be in over their heads. I get the impression that the dudes from Company of Heroes were transplanted into the Warhammer 40,000 A.D. universe, where they set up their turrets and barricades and — holy crap, what the heck are those things, because we’re gonna need a bigger tank? Pictured.
The beta also lets you play the other races with their new toys. I’m quite fond of a new Tyranid beetle that has a heck of time keeping up with its spry leaping companions, but can hunker down to heal himself up between fights.
This should be a pretty dramatic time for Dawn of War II. For hardcore players, Relic and balance have never been on very friendly terms. But for the rest of us, this is one of the most generous RTS sandboxes you can play in. Get the multiplayer beta here while the gettin’s good.
I have decided to let the game decide which of these community levels I’m going to try. You can do this using a feature in the LBP2 Community area called “Lucky Dip”. I’m not going to try to sort based on what the community thinks is hot, or look for specific subjects. I’m going on a roll of the dice here. I’ve been called a “braver man” for doing this.
That’s how I wound up playing DOOM 333. DOOM 333 is an exceedingly simple little level. That’s me up there in that picture, about to fall headfirst onto a jump pad. It’s basically all jumping and running, and it’s very quick. I was a little put off by it, actually, because there’s nothing to it. You get a couple goodies, go through a gate, and then jump over some giant things. That’s it. I was about to leave it behind and try another Lucky Dip when I saw that I was in second place on the scoreboard. Yes, second out of two. But still second. So…I played again. And again. And again. Now I’m in first, a position I’ve held for almost a day. With at least three other sack creatures trailing me. I like being first.
Most of the time I’m playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I have no idea what’s going on. Stuff just happens. Crazy colorful stuff. I may or may not have made it happen. I may or may not know who’s involved. Sometimes it’s a famous superhero or Albert Wesker. Sometimes it’s some crazy character from Japan. I feel the same way looking at screenshots. Like that up there. Jill Valentine from Resident Evil is beating up an octopus? I didn’t even realize there was an octopus in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
You’ll be able to confuse yourself with the game as of February 15th. Until then, more bewildering screenshots are available here.
[THQ] CEO Brian Farrell made the announcement at an earnings call today, explaining, “In the Fall, we plan to launch the latest installment of our Saints Row franchise, which we view as a significant growth driver in fiscal 2012.
“Volition is setting a new bar for this outstanding franchise and we look forward to unveiling this game in the near future.”
Albert Wesker voice actor D.C. Douglas’ take on the Old Spice commercials by way of Resident Evil 5’s overcromulent climactic cutscene answers a question I’ve often wondered: Do voice actors know how ridiculous videogames are?
Microsoft just announced the development of Class3, the working title of a zombie survival MMO for the Xbox 360.
[Class3] is designed to let zombie fans answer the ultimate question: What would you do in the face of the zombie apocalypse? The end is here. Human civilization has been annihilated. The few, scattered survivors must band together, rebuilding civilization in a third- person action game packed with sweet guns, fast cars, hand-to-hand combat, and copious amounts of zombie gore. Players choose where to make their stand, designing and fortifying their settlements, performing daring raids for valuable stores of food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors. The open world develops in real-time, shaped by player actions, with content determined by their choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.
Developer Undead Labs has a pretty cool blog, where you can find cool artwork like the above picture and lots of theoretical discussion about the game, including the following “high level picture”:
Zombie survival. We start with an unwavering focus on bringing the whole zombie survival experience to life. It’s not just combat. It’s about meeting survival needs. Food, water, shelter, ammo…You’ll need them all.
Amazing action. Absolutely zero compromise on the moment-to-moment look, feel, and fun factor of the game. You shouldn’t have to put up with unexciting mechanics just because they’re packaged in an addictive wrapper. The game must play like a great console action game.
An evolving, dynamic world. These sound like buzzwords you’ve heard so many times before, but for us it’s a real goal: creating a game where players’ choices and ability to build have permanent impact on the world. It informs everything we do design-wise.
Player choice and empowerment. Every one of the points above is tied to this. A survival situation is about making choices. Great action gameplay is about responsiveness and feel, but it’s also about freedom, and the way to have an evolving, dynamic world is to empower players to affect that world.
No word on a release date, but given that it’s an Xbox Live Arcade game likely to have a subscription fee, I’m going to guess this is the sort of thing they wouldn’t announce until it was within a year of release.
Anyone who played Batman: Arkham Asylum is surely looking forward to Batman: Arkham City. Just look at it (pictured). You can fly around with a helicopter! As someone who’s been gliding around Gotham City for the last three weeks, I can’t wait to see developer Rocksteady’s take on this larger world.
However, it’s hard not to notice the careful language in the press release and wonder if there’s some sort of expectation management going on.
Developed by Rocksteady Studios, Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.
Arkham City isn’t Gotham. It’s a district. A “sprawling district”, according to that press release, but still a district. I get the feeling I’m not going to get to drive the Batmobile around after all. At least I’ll always have this.
