The vague summer release window for THQ's Darksiders II became slightly less vague today, with the company's third quarter 2012 financial report listing the title for a June release. Ah, the sweet release of Death.
While it might not be quite as terrifying as the Circle Pad Pro add-on it helped inspire for the Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil: Revelations seems to have scared some impressive numbers out of the assembled game reviewers.
The eight games in the main Resident Evil series and the first to appear exclusively on a handheld, Resident Evil: Revelations has a lot to prove. It's got to demonstrate that a major installment of the beloved series can thrive on a portable platform. It has to show fans that Capcom still has a grasp on the franchise's survival horror roots. Plus it has to justify a ridiculous looking add-on for Nintendo's 3DS.
This is a game carrying a great deal of weight on its shoulder buttons. Judging from these review scores it looks like it hasn't had too much of a problem with that. See for yourself!
Edge Magazine
Ever since Shinji Mikami reinvented survival horror for a second time with Resident Evil 4, the series has struggled to bottle that same lightning again. Resident Evil 5 leaned too far towards action spectacle for its control scheme, while the forthcoming Operation Raccoon City looks to have caved in to thirdperson shooter mores altogether. Revelations, the franchise's fourth portable outing, takes most of its cues from Resident Evil 5's gung-ho gameplay, but still finds itself uncertain where its allegiances lie.
Gamer Limit
Right off the bat Revelations impresses with it's new MT Framework engine – words really can't describe how great it looks, and how the 3D effect adds to the presentation. Capcom really did an amazing job here, and for the first time, it really feels like Nintendo has provided us with hardware that can come close to a true console experience - if other developers can harness the power of the 3DS, it'll really give the Vita a run for it's money in 2012.
I won't go into an in-depth review of the Circle Pad Pro (that's worth a second article), but suffice to say it does it job in terms of offering an additional control scheme to Revelations. Adding the Circle Pad into the mix is extremely easy: you just attach it, and the game automatically calibrates it and switches to that scheme. The Circle Pad brings two new mechanics to the standard setup: it adds an additional control stick, and it adds extra shoulder buttons that allow you to switch weapons and items easier. It's by no means required, as the game controls just fine without it via the d-pad and touch screen, but it adds a little bit to the experience: if you're so inclined to spend the extra $20 (note that a handful of other future games are already confirmed to have Circle Pad Pro support).
Wired
The gameplay retains many of the vestiges of Resident Eviltry past but dispenses with the actual details of it. You find Green Herbs still to replenish your health, but you no longer must combine them with Red Herbs or anything like that. You needn't find any rooster keys to open chicken doors. On the one hand it is nice to be rid of some of this busywork. On the other hand, there was a certain reward to exploration and backtracking in previous games that doesn't really exist in this more linear, episodic structure.
At most times during your adventure you will have the use of a Metroid Prime-style scanner that adds a new wrinkle to the gameplay: You can scan the room for hidden items, but you can also scan monsters before or after you kill them. Scanning them alive and when they're really close to you gets you more points, and 100 points gets you another Green Herb. A clever risk-reward mechanic.
Gamespot
Though most of the action takes place aboard the abandoned ocean liner, it's a diverse and expansive location. New paths and shortcuts are unlocked as you explore, taking in a grisly kitchen, a gloomy dining room, and a ritzy great hall. Later on there are submerged, swimmable sections to mix things up—first with the time pressure of getting from air pocket to air pocket without drowning, and then with a diving apparatus and underwater shock grenades for aquatic beasties. The environments look great, as do the richly detailed character models, especially those of Jill and the various barbed, bony, or bulging zombie creatures. The visuals are among the finest you'll see on a 3DS, and the 3D itself is also excellent; Revelations in 3D has a subtle, convincing solidity that's easy on the eye.
Nintendo Life
While the campaign is varied and fairly lengthy, clocking in at over ten hours, Revelations is packed with extras and additional game modes. In the campaign alone you start with two difficulty settings, while completion of ‘normal' will unlock the ‘hell' mode, a New Game+ that allows you to retain weapons and items from the first playthrough. The standard setting is challenging in its own right, with boss fights a sticking point in the balancing of difficulty. We progressed well, with few deaths, until the first major boss encounter: in these difficult sections the otherwise solid controls can perhaps be a problem, with the dodge move – Up and B together with good timing – being particularly awkward.
In the grand scheme of things it's a minor issue overcome with a few run-throughs, with most sections suiting the control setup well. As expected, the hell difficulty pushes the limits, with enemies that move faster and absorb more bullets: skilful gamers will need persistence and practice to succeed. There are also Missions – or achievements – to complete, varying from killing a set number of monsters to successfully dodging 20 times.
MoDojo
Outside of the single player campaign, there's Raid, a mini-game that replaces Mercenaries; probably for the best, since you can buy the standalone Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Here, you plow through levels pulled from the main quest, killing progressively difficult monsters and earning points to unlock better weapons and equipment. What makes it special is the inclusion of local and online co-op with a friend. Regardless of how you connect, the game runs smoothly throughout.
Kotaku
I'm sure some people would like a scarier Resident Evil than Revelations, though this one undeniably moves closer to RE1 than either of the last big two. I'm mostly satisfied with the mix here. Episode after episode, the game feels like an anthology of the series' past tones. Fat has been cut, additions have been made, corny dialogue continues to be chattered and an under-appreciated piece of hardware has been programmed masterfully.
Resident Evil: Revelations' is one of the series' best and it is a 3DS essential, a worthy continuation of the release of substantial and technically impressive games on the platform that have been coming out, about one a month, since the fall.
I adore the music to PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies. I bought the soundtrack from composer Laura Shigihara, and I still listen to it pretty regularly.
My favorite track from the whole game is the tune "Watery Graves," which plays during the backyard pool missions (runners-up include "Loonboon" and the Oingo-Boingoish ""Ultimate Battle.")
So you can imagine that I dug the crap out of this video, in which YouTube user TrangLoL performs a fingerstyle-guitar rendition of "Watery Graves" that is damned impressive.
Enough gabbing from me - watch this guy do his thing.
Indie alt-rocker Ryan Adams is many things: Reformed troublemaker, husband to Mandy Moore, provocative interviewee, and damned good songwriter.
He is also, it would appear, a fan of Skyrim, based on this tweet about the glory of Denver's skyline. Go ahead, Ryan.
Hello everyone, welcome to the Kotaku Game Club. Today will be our last meeting discussing Portal 2. After covering many aspects of the single-player experience in our last few meetings, today we'll be talking about the co-op missions, which offer a whole new set of surprises and challenges.
Since Portal 2's co-op contains some story elements, including its own ending, we must warn you once again that this discussion may include spoilers.
If you're a Game Club first-timer, here's a primer: Our goal at Kotaku Game Club is to experience games as a community, so we play a specific game each month, meeting each week in the Game Club's comments section to discuss our thoughts on a many aspects of the game, including its narrative and mechanical themes and our own responses to them.
Our meetings start at 4pm Eastern every Thursday, and last an hour or so. The Game Club is here to get everybody talking with each other, so don't be afraid to bring up any topic related to the game, speak your mind and start a dialogue with other posters.
Here's your question of the week: Does Portal 2's co-op effectively re-create the essence of the Portal experience?
One of the topics we've discussed in recent weeks was the nature of controlled experiences in gaming. Though they don't hold your hand, Valve uses clever puzzle and level design to ensure that everyone advances through the game the way they want. This allows for the subtle story cues and the hands-off teaching that define the series. Adding a second player dramatically reduces the efficacy of that type of design since the two players can (well, must) focus on each other as much as they do the level itself.
That's all, folks! Congratulations on completing another month of Kotaku Game Club! As always, there will be a thread below where you guys can let me know what game you'd like us to play next: We will most likely be going back to playing something current next month, so keep that in mind when coming up with ideas. We will make an announcement as soon as we choose what game to play next. Stay tuned and thanks for playing!
A release date for the PC version of the psychological action-thriller Alan Wake has been announced. It will be available on February 16th, and will cost $29.99.
Don't get all excited: the teleporting X-Man, Spider-Man archenemy and Asgardian troll aren't playable characters. Their likenesses show up on ability card in the UMvC3's Heroes and Heralds Mode, which will be also playable on the game's PlayStation Vita version. Screens and video of handheld UMvC3—including the Gold Herald skins exclusive to Sony's handheld—make it look as pretty as its console counterparts. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will be available when the Vita launches on Feb. 22.
Remember last month when many people were mad about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act? Remember the war between politicians who said these bills would repel online piracy and opponents who said it might break the internet and/or kill free speech online?
Gamers' biggest target for their ire about those bills was the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbying group funded by the biggest video game publishers in the world. The ESA—which also hosts the massive trade show E3 each year—was for those bills and, like any lobbying group, spent money trying to get their position turned into law.
Lobbyists are required to file reports about their activities every three months. That's why we were able to report that the ESA spent as much as $190,000 paying people to lobby for PIPA, the Senate's now-shelved anti-online-piracy bill, through the spring and summer.
As the anger over SOPA and PIPA reached a boil last month, we were still in the dark about how much money the ESA was spending to try to support those bills this fall (they declined to tell us). But on the same day, Jan 20, that they finally disavowed the bills, they filed their required fourth-quarter lobbying report.
Here it is:
The document lists lobbying about SOPA and PIPA among the group's causes that they spent $1,082,167.00 on between October 1 and December 31. (That's basically what they spend every three months.) They also lobbied about tax policy, immigration and other issues tied to the business of making video games.
In that period, the group did spend $50,000 for the Smith-Free Group to lobby for PIPA and a handful of other issues and $50,000 for the Monument Policy Group to push for SOPA and lobby on several other issues.
The filings don't consistently state the ESA's positions on the bills, but the group had expressed clear support for the anti-piracy issues until the 20th, a day after both bills were essentially abandoned in the Senate and House.
Remember last month when many people were mad about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act? Remember the war between politicians who said these bills would repel online piracy and opponents who said it might break the internet and/or kill free speech online?
Gamers' biggest target for their ire about those bills was the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbying group funded by the biggest video game publishers in the world. The ESA—which also hosts the massive trade show E3 each year—was for those bills and, like any lobbying group, spent money trying to get their position turned into law.
Lobbyists are required to file reports about their activities every three months. That's why we were able to report that the ESA spent as much as $190,000 paying people to lobby for PIPA, the Senate's now-shelved anti-online-piracy bill, through the spring and summer.
As the anger over SOPA and PIPA reached a boil last month, we were still in the dark about how much money the ESA was spending to try to support those bills this fall (they declined to tell us). But on the same day, Jan 20, that they finally disavowed the bills, they filed their required fourth-quarter lobbying report.
Here it is:
The document lists lobbying about SOPA and PIPA among the group's causes that they spent $1,082,167.00 on between October 1 and December 31. (That's basically what they spend every three months.) They also lobbied about tax policy, immigration and other issues tied to the business of making video games.
In that period, the group did spend $50,000 for the Smith-Free Group to lobby for PIPA and a handful of other issues and $50,000 for the Monument Policy Group to push for SOPA and lobby on several other issues.
The filings don't consistently state the ESA's positions on the bills, but the group had expressed clear support for the anti-piracy issues until the 20th, a day after both bills were essentially abandoned in the Senate and House.
Only three actual games made it into the Nintendo Download this week, but when one of them is Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword of the 3DS you don't really need much else.
A sword fighting game that's all about timing and strategy, Sakura Samurai tells the tale of a young boy on a quest to master the sword and rescue the lovely Princess Cherry Blossom from her vile captors. Only by mastering drawing his weapon and using his momentum to strike can he hope to reach his noble goals.
He might take a break to slice fruit now and again.
Available today for the 3DS, Sakura Samurai is a game that Nintendo really thinks fans will dig. You can tell by the fact that it's got its own sub-website off on Nintendo.com rather than a generic entry in the site's game catalog.
Check out the list below to see what else makes it to the downloadable table this week, and be sure to click on the game titles to visit Nintendo's official game pages.
Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math: The Great Gateway Grab
Publisher: The Learning Company
Price: 600 Wii Points
Breaking news from Mumbai, India: The Gateway of India was stolen a few hours ago. It looks like an open and shut case of V.I.L.E villainy. The Chief wants ACME's best agent on this, and that means you, detective. Get to Mumbai fast and find the arch-criminal who carried out this monumental malfeasance. Carmen Sandiego is back and only you can foil her V.I.L.E plans. Travel the globe, solve brain-twisting math puzzles, and catch the villain behind the Great Gateway Grab. Crack the case of the Great Gateway Grab in single-player Story Mode. Perfect your math skills in single-player Practice Mode. Challenge your friends and family to solve math puzzles against the clock in Multiplayer Mode. In Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math, you practice your math skills and use them to fight crime. Ideal for grades 4–5, math topics include arithmetic, logic puzzles, fractions and much more!
Features
• Travel the world, solve math puzzles and fight crime!
• Challenge friends to math duels against the clock
• Aligned to grade 4 and 5 Math Common Core Standards
• Math topics include geometry, fractions, and many more!
GO Series: Undead Storm
Publisher: Gamebridge
Price: $1.99 / 200 DSi Points
The explosive action is non-stop as you take the fight to the zombie hordes. Six months after a mysterious meteorite strike, the undead have awoken and are taking over the city. You'll face wave after wave of killer zombies with only some serious firepower to protect you. Play solo, or team up with your friends via a local wireless connection, and take the fight to the shuffling hordes. Solo zombie slayers can find other survivors to join them as allies. In Multi Play Mode, you can cooperate with up to three friends via a local wireless connection. They'll have your back in the firefight against the undead, and can revive you if your health flatlines. Choose from four player characters and face down the zombie threat in a horrific hospital, a hazardous chemical plant and the decimated downtown area. What lies behind this zombie epidemic? Only you can discover the truth...
Features
• Explosive, non-stop, zombie slaying action
• Hordes of zombies and giant bosses to take down
• Protect yourself with shotguns, flame throwers, grenades
• Intense 2-4 player action via DS Wireless Communications
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: $6.99
Travel a world rife with beauty and danger to rescue the legendary Princess Cherry Blossom. Her kidnapper has placed dozens of blade-wielding henchmen in your path.
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword is a swordfighting action game that is simple to play. Just use the A Button to attack, and the B Button combined with the Circle Pad to dodge. The secret of Iai is not reckless swinging, but rather one well-timed, swift attack. Aim for openings in your enemy's guard–in the instant after you've dodged an attack, or just before he swings.
