I don’t make it any further than the above screenshot in Maniacolus’ lovely Little Big Planet level, The gnome cave. That’s because Maniacolus built it with limited lives. When I lose those, the level ends and I have to restart from the very beginning. So I have the option of replaying over and over on the way back to that jump, or I can go play another lovely level with infinite lives, like Lockstitch’s Vile Anchorage. I do the latter. My Sack Girl still dies a lot, but she’s happier for never going farther backwards than the last check point.
As a guy who’s so bad at platformers that I break out in a cold sweat when I get to a part where I have to jump, I don’t understand why someone would make a level with limited lives. If you want people like me to see your work, don’t punish us by putting us back at the beginning. But that’s just the bad platform gamer in me talking. Part of the appeal of Little Big Planet is that there are so many different kinds of levels. If I wanted to play a punishing platformer, and I didn’t already have a copy of Donkey Kong Country Returns, I might enjoy banging my head against The gnome cave to work my way up the leaderboards.
Can you feel the excitement in the air? That’s millions of Call of Duty players quivering in anticipation for the First Strike add-on that goes live next week. For only $129.99 USD, they’ll get two new maps. One of them is a snowy base (pictured) that’s totally not Array and the other is a non-snowy base that’s totally not Launch.
AI War’s latest update is now live. If you’ve previously played this epic sci-fi RTS, prepare to re-learn it.
With this update, nearly every combat ship in the game has been rebalanced in an effort to integrate all the new units added over the past year. Golems have been completely revamped and the AI have received major intelligence upgrades such as more proactive retreats, a network of core shield generators, and the new “stalking” mechanic where it lies in wait until the player is at their most vulnerable.
And if you haven’t previously played it, the update intends to make it more accessible.
Players should also be pleased with significant adjustments to overall difficulty and the shortening of the early part of the game — allowing you to “get to the good part” faster. Not to mention tons of performance improvements, as well as more of a general accessibility regardless of what level of player you are.
Additionally, you can get the new $10 add-on, Light of the Spire, to give AI War a new story-based mode and shorter tower defense modes.
* 180 new ships, including massive “spirecraft” (larger than starships, smaller than golems).
* Nine new bonus ship classes featuring oversized starship-like spire ships.
* New Defender campaign type that allows for a way to play shorter sessions.
* New AI weapons: Beachheads AI Plot, 4 core guard posts, and 10 guardians.
* Exciting Fallen Spire story-based campaign-within-a-campaign. Alternate way to win!
* New in-game music tracks.
A Seattle Fox News affiliate thought they had a real “David and Goliath” human interest story when they recounted Microsoft’s cruelty to an autistic boy. It seems the boy was so good at games — think Dustin Hoffman counting toothpicks in Rain Man — that Microsoft thought he was cheating. So they zeroed out his achievements. But the boy’s mother wouldn’t let this stand. Like Norma Rae organizing unions, she rallied against injustice. She called the news to complain and they obligingly ran her story.
Except it turns out he was cheating. He had sent his account information to someone who hacked it offline to enable recon armor in Halo. Oops. Pwnt.
(Thanks Slashdot!)
I’m so predictable. I couldn’t resist jumping into the first zombie-themed level I could find. Which wasn’t hard considering it’s prominently featured at the top of the recommended lists. It’s Dead Rising “mall of the dead” by RLCSAMS. You’re dropped into a sort of mall at one of several spawning points. Around the mall, you’ll find paintguns and throwable dynamite sticks with which to kill zombies. Sack zombies! You earn points for kills, and you lose points for getting eaten. At certain scoring thresholds, you unlock boxes containing advanced weapons. Like a flamethrower. Once the time limit is up, your score is logged on the boards. I’m a bit disappointed there isn’t some sort of getting to the chopper at the end.
There’s a lot of running away, and getting trapped, and dying, which should be features of any zombie encounter. Above, you can see my Sack Girl running in terror, desperately brandishing her paint gun. Despite the earnestly grim soundtrack, it’s the cheeriest and most adorable zombie slaughter I’ve ever seen. When it was all done, I wrote my first online review of a Little Big Planet level. Well, my first ingame online review.
I also noticed that every level has its own web page, courtesy of Little Big Planet’s fantastic community support. You can go here for Dead Rising “mall of the dead”, and if you’re logged into your Sony account, you can even queue it up for download next time you turn on your PS3.
Hi, DC Universe Online! I mostly want to say, “Great job and keep doing what you’re doing!” What a fantastic variation on the MMO theme, not to mention the superhero theme. I like that you have more in common with Crackdown, Infamous, or Prototype than you do with World of Warcraft or some sort of Aquaman comic book.
However — Let’s see, where are all my notes? Ah, here we go! — I have a few, uh, “suggestions”. I make these primarily because I love the game, but also because I’m surprised you don’t know better, being the creation of Sony Online Entertainment, a company with a long and storied history in online games.
After the jump, the nerd rage begins. Continue reading →
Hey, look what Sony just announced! It’s got wifi, 3G network support, two analog sticks, a GPS system, two cameras, motion controls, a touchscreen on the back of the case, a built-in mic, and enough graphics power to run versions of the latest games that don’t look ten years old. In other words, a whole bunch of stuff the PSP didn’t have. So don’t call it a PSP2. Right now, you can call it the NGP, for “next-generation portable entertainment system”.
But that’s just its code name. We’ll be hearing more about its actual edgy name and exorbitant price probably at E3. It’s due out this holiday.
If you’re into basketball (pictured), now is the time to sign up for Quarter to Three’s annual Madden league. If you’ve got a copy of Madden 11, you can check this thread for which teams are available. This epic thread for last year’s league explains this details. Good luck, and may the best man take home the cup this year!
Yesterday, I looked at the highest rated Little Big Planet level ever. Today, I’d like to get a look at the other end of the spectrum. However, there’s no option to sort lowest rated. And besides, wouldn’t some of the worst levels ever be simply unrated? What’s an easy way to just jump into something junky?
After the jump, I play the odds. Continue reading →
Among the list of usual suspects announced at a recent press event, Paradox Interactive revealed titles like Salem, Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, Dreamlor–. Wait, hold on. Back up. Isn’t armored warfare like, you know, tanks and stuff? I see what you did there, Paradox. What gives?
“Well, everyone knows General Lee lost at Gettysburg. What this game presupposes is, maybe they had kevlar crotch guards? Oh, and tanks and zeppelins.”
Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, which is a shooter/RTS hybrid, is one of several free-to-play games in development. Dig it:
* Salem — A free-to-play crafting MMORPG title set in a mythical version of New England.
* Gettysburg: Armored Warfare — A free-to-play FPS/ RTS hybrid. The game is set during an alternate version of the Civil War and includes tanks, zeppelins, a wide variety of firearms and much more.
* Hearts of Iron: The Card Game — A browser-based, free-to-play digital collectable card game based on the Hearts of Iron franchise.
* Dreamlords: Resurrection — A free-to-play Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy (MMORTS) game.
Is it silly to be psyched about a Hearts of Iron CCG? I know it’s fashionable to think WWII is played out, but I love accessible new gameplay approaches like Petroglyph’s Panzer General on Xbox Live Arcade. When my opponent taps Hitler to keep his Panzer Division from retreating, I’m totally going to play my Atom Bomb card for ten points of damage. GG, Germany.
A New York Times blog reports Russian television making a connection between the bombing at the Moscow Airport and Modern Warfare 2’s infamous “No Russian” mission (pictured).
Russia Today, a government-financed satellite channel, broadcast a report that mixed footage of the aftermath of the attack with gory scenes from a video game, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” which allows players to take part in a terrorist attack on a Russian airport.
Russia Today’s report, which emphasized that the video game was made by Americans, included an interview with Walid Phares, a Fox News terrorism analyst, who suggested that terrorists might be using virtual games like this one to train for real attacks. “I think those who have been radicalized already — let’s suppose in this case jihadists, Al Qaeda or [some] other kind — they look at the games and say these games will serve them to train,” Mr. Phares said.
However, it looks like New York Times writer Robert Mackey knows his videogames.
The report asserts that the suicide bombing on Monday “mirrors” the video game’s scenario. In fact, the game dramatizes a commando raid on a Moscow airport that much more closely resembles the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.
I’m so charmed by this demo. I can’t help it. It brings to mind that friend who tries really really hard to be tough, especially to talk tough, but never quite gets there. He knows the words. He’s heard them all before. In movies probably. Or more likely he’s read them. But when he says them…not so much. It just doesn’t translate. It’s like he’s forcing little puzzle pieces together that clearly don’t fit. You like him so much, though, you let it slide. And eventually this becomes an endearing part of his personality.
This Xbox Bulletstorm demo is trying its darndest to be hardcore funny, but it’s such a dork. Dick-tits? Really? I should dismiss you out of hand, Bulletstorm. But I can’t. Because I think I love you, man. You’re just trying so hard with that pseudo-gruff pirate-voiced narrator. Grayson Hunt is the name? I’ll try not to giggle. Come over here so I can give you a noogy. What was that you wanted me to do? Bury my boot* in that freak’s poop passage? Poop passage? Did you really say that? Fine. You’re invited to the party Saturday night. You’re adorable.
Also, that leash thing. I like.
*pictured
That’s blast radius, a level for Little Big Planet 2 created by Johnee. I found it by going to the community section, paging past the Cool Levels, Media Molecule Recommendations, and Text Search options to the More area. From there, I selected “highest rated ever” in the browse options. Blast radius appeared, and after a short loading time, I was inside a twin stick shooter with different weapons for blasting asteroids to get at the scoring crystals on the inside.
It’s cute. It’s just a twin stick shooter with different weapons and screen clearing bombs. Aggressive UFOs come along eventually. There are leaderboards that show me somewhere around 8,000th place.
After the jump, I’ll show you the cool thing it does. Continue reading →
Blizzard has just posted their three official Starcraft II mods. There’s a Protoss cooking game called Auir Chef, a head-to-head match-3 called Starjeweled, and a co-operative zombie survival mode called Left 2 Die. This latter mode is an adaptation of the Outbreak campaign mission.
At night, you and a teammate are tasked with protecting your base against waves of infested terrans. In order to survive, you’ll need to use defensive structures like bunkers and coordinate your defenses against the invading zerg armies. You’ll also want to watch out for special zerg units such as the Kaboomer and Stank that can perform unique and powerful abilities capable of overwhelming even the strongest front lines.
During the day, the attacks on your team’s base will cease, giving you and your teammate time to train additional units and take them out to destroy infested terran settlements scattered across the map. It’s also a good idea to continue building up defenses during the daytime so you can survive the merciless onslaught of zerg that swarm your base at night.
There’s even an endless night mode where the goal isn’t to win, but to survive as long as you can.
Although these are technically beta, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they’re ten times more playable as the typical beta in Starcraft II’s poorly organized morass of custom maps. It’s kind of cute when Blizzard suggests that to play these modes, “simply [sic] go to the Multiplayer tab in StarCraft II and look for the custom games window”. That’s like saying to defeat communism in Southeast Asia, “simply send in a few military advisors and defeat Ho Chi Minh”. A far better way to find these modes is to type the name into the search box and hope the actual mod floats to the top.
Go here to read more details on the game modes, including screenshots.
Yeah, yeah, that’s all good and well. Very clever, Mr. Joel Guelzo. But what I’m really looking for is more Sunset Sarsaparilla. Do you know how much of that junk I’ve drunk looking for the star bottle caps?
