Weekend Purchase and Regrets 0

by Adam Blue • Impressions

With the combination of credit and Gamestop rewards (never thought it would ever be of value) I acquired Raiden IV: CE and Deathsmiles: CE on the 360 for a dollar – both SHMUPS, if you have no idea what I’m talking about. This has been a long time coming. I question myself as to why I waited so long to get these gems. But, I figure it’s the summer and this is when you work on your backlog.

Raiden IV is just that – Raiden. The difficulty here is spectacular, making me feel rather worthless. Deathsmiles on the other hand tends to be a bit forgiving, but has an ultimate last boss. Yeah, I played through DS a couple times already. Raiden IV? Still creeping my way through. I like to think I’m good at shmups, but I’m not.

Also, tonight is the Duke Nukem launch party which I was invited to. I’m with my daughter this weekend and will only really consider a few to babysit. I could have asked others, but I’m not at that point yet, I guess. It would seem sitting for a sub-two-year-old is quite a task, even in slumber. For now, I feel better that I’m home. Hera doesn’t want to sleep at the moment – I would probably be a wreck at this party anyway. So, I kind of regret not going, but feel better being at home with my daughter. Maybe that will change as she gets older…hopefully.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

XBLIGs Are Awesome 0

by Adam Blue • Impressions

Can you say Xbligs? I mean, you can try to pronounce it out, but really, it stands for Xbox Live Indie Games. Fortunately, again, by making use of Google Reader, I can quickly find splendid things. I plug in a bunch of feeds from relevant gaming sites/blogs to keep up with the industry. It’s my job. Or, I’d like it to be so, I do it for fun. Kotaku is in there, though I’m not a big fan. But they do post things that I have great interest in. Just some things they should pay me to read.

From good ol’ Google Reader, I came across a Kotaku post about an XBLIG by the name of Akane. It is straight-up an old-school platformer. You’re a ninja girl that throws knives. You throw them at ninja enemies that pace back and forth on platforms, as well as dogs. There’s no point to it – just like games used to be! And I love it.

And it’s a dollar.

Then I found Shoot 1 Up.

Do you remember Galaga? Do you remember the neat trick of letting your ship get captured by the enemy, then shooting the enemy to then have your captured ship return as help? Full-on double ships? No, no one remembers that. But it’s a neat trick to pull off at the arcades, though, it doesn’t impress the ladies. I mean, they aren’t ever really at arcades. Even then…there aren’t even arcades anymore. I’m getting a little too far off here…

Anyway, my thought is they got the concept from Galaga: A 1-up equals a ship to use right then. You can have three, or six…or nineteen. And you use the triggers to expand and retract from one another. It’s brilliant!

And it’s a dollar.

Then I found the greatest game ever.

But it’s not a dollar. Still worth it.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

Review – Jamestown 0

by Adam Blue • Reviews

Jamestown is a SHMUP you can buy on Steam that is completely awesome. That’s my review.

I will elaborate on this to try and entice people to play that normally wouldn’t play shmups. The graphics look like something straight out of the SNES/Genesis era. Pixelation heaven. Maybe a more refined look though – like games that stuck with 2D hand-drawn graphics when everyone else went 3D. This old-school feel goes with animations, effects, and music. The music…wow. It’s a bit like orchestrated music, and at first I wasn’t too keen on it. But it fit in perfectly with the theme, being that you are on a new frontier. It’s Mars, but with a twist…let me explain.

It’s the 1600′s and the Spanish/English are colonizing Mars. It doesn’t explain how or why, and I didn’t even bother asking, so we’ll just leave it at that. You are with a group of English colonists, riding on hover ships of some kind. You go through the levels fighting back at the conquistadors and Martians. Yeah, that’s pretty epic.

But this strange and unfamiliar setting really works with the music, like I mentioned earlier. It’s fantastic. It’s further reinforced by the amazing gameplay. It’s a basic SHMUP by nature, but each ship has a special weapon that is unlimited. It gives you different things to do while playing, which helps depending on the enemy. Then you have ‘Vaunt’ which you get by, I believe, grabbing a bunch of gold quickly (enemies leave this behind). It creates a temporary shield, allowing you to get out of sticky situations. Your normal weapons, special weapon, and vaunt are the three ingredients used to efficiently complete a level.

There are many difficulty levels, but later levels require beating previous ones on a harder difficulty. I like this, as it is a built-in trainer in a way. I did get myself to the last level…it is a beast! But I’m sure just more playing and focus will get me through it. Then there are bonus levels with neat objectives, like score attack and survival. You also get gold that you an use to buy more ships and game types. And also, to round it all out, 4-player co-op.

It’s sub-$10 on Steam, GamersGate, and D2D. Buy it. It’s awesome. It seems like something Treasure could have put together. These guys are good.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

Oh My Lanta: Jamestown 1

by Adam Blue • News

I just discovered this gem from Steam store news in my Google Reader feed. I don’t know how else I would have known about this:

Needless to say, it is quite incredible. Definitely an old-school SHMUP with amazing graphics, music, and story. I’ll post some more impressions later.

Here are the ones responsible: Final Form Games

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Hands On 1

by Michael Clark • Editorial, Impressions

Deus Ex is a game that I have long hailed as one of the finest in its genre,  unfortunately the series as a whole has not faired as well in my opinion. The sequel, Invisible War, was an a bit of a disappointment to say the least.  Now we have Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution which will be arriving in just a few months time. The previews have lead me to believe that things were heading in the right direction, all of the early indicators seemed to show that Eidos would staying true to the formula that made the original so unique and enjoyable. Earlier this week when I heard that there was a preview build that had been leaked I immediately jumped on it, what can I say I could not resist temptation.  It is the sequel to one of my favorite PC games after all. I had to check it out if only to just get a taste of what to expect come August.  Now that I have had the opportunity to play through a good chunk of the game I can safely say that things are looking good, real good. It may borrow a few elements from recent games and overall be a bit flashier than the original, but at its heart it is still is Deus Ex and that is quite a relief.

More

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

The Weekend in Gam – wait, do you even care? It’s E3 Week! 1

by Adam Blue • Editorial, Impressions

I’m pretty excited about E3 this year because I have not even been thinking about it. I have no idea (aside from the Project Cafe rumors) what could be announced. I want to be blown away. I don’t think there will be anything about C&C because it’s just too early, so there’s really nothing specific I could be hoping for. I just hope to be surprised.

I am sure that Halo HD for XBLA will be revealed – I think that’ll be awesome.

This weekend I got a chance to play the Duke Nukem Forever PC demo. It was a lot of fun. Certainly Duke Nukem. The demo consisted of two levels, the first being fun, but the second being a little boring. I’m sure that second level was really shown just for contrast; mine-carts, vehicles, spaceships. The graphics were fine, but nothing top-notch. Some of the enemy animations were a little weak. I’m still getting the Balls of Steel Edition. One major complaint I have is only being able to hold two weapons at once. This works fine for modern cookie-cutter shooters, but Duke Nukem has no reason to go that route. Even while playing, the game seems to have been made for carrying multiple weapons. I tend to always have to run back to pick up weapons I dropped previously. This should really be fixed. Day. One. Patch.

And because of the release of EA games on GoG.com, I finally have a legitimate chance to play Dungeon Keeper. I had ignored it back in the day because I assumed it was just an RPG. But within the gaming discussion on these ‘forums’ that have been quite a norm for years, hype for the game slowly built up inside me. It sounded like an RTS that I could certainly get into. Now that I have had a chance to play it, that certainly is the truth. For a game from 1997, it holds up beautifully. The gameplay is rich and perfect. It’s addicting. I see that there’s a sequel with upgraded visuals, but I just have to find an easy way to obtain it (I prefer to purchase it).

Because of DK, I decided to try a recently released game called Dungeons. The videos seemed to offer a similar gameplay style to Dungeon Keeper, but any attempt to launch the demo from Steam resorted to my computer restarting. What the fuck? I’m sure a simple deletion and reinstallation would do the trick, but come on…

With the PSN Store back online, I took advantage of the Welcome Back Program and downloaded Super Stardust HD. I had always heard good things and wanted to give it a go. But, it is just okay. Unlike most other SHMUPS, when I die in SSDHD, I just stop playing. Nothing here compels me to keep playing. Oh well. I just wasted that down with some Dead Nation. DN is my number one pick for the Welcome Back Program if you don’t have it yet.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

The Hunted – Early Impressions 1

by Michael Clark • Editorial

I was quite intrigued after playing the game last year at Quakecon. The focus on co-op and the game play that seemed to be a medieval/fantasy themed Gears of War definitely piqued my interest. But after getting to play the game for an extended period of time I was a bit let down, echoing Adam’s sentiments that the game was just not as good as I remembered it being.

My first impressions of the story line and characters can be met with a simple… “meh”. There is just not much to it. I had no attachment to the characters whatsoever and that has not changed at all even 4 hours or so in. Thankfully the occasional witty dialog keeps things lively and has had me chuckling a few times. Starting off the combat is a bit on the dull side,  but it is quickly spiced up a bit by the magic/abilities that can be purchased. Things can get interesting once you upgrade your powers, there are many opportunities to use the skills of both players to tactfully take down the opposition. For instance Caddoc, the melee centric character, can lift up many opponents up and slam them into the ground Jedi style. While the enemies are levitating (if you have purchased the upgrade) hitting them mid air with the bow can inflict heavy damage. Or while using  Elara’s  bow you can freeze or slow opponents allowing you get to get in and slice and dice with ease. Combining abilities like this certainly helps diversify the combat which is otherwise a simple hack and slash experience.

I do have a little qualm with the map design.  It seems you are constantly forced down one narrow passageway after another. Most of the time completely enshrouded in darkness.  Even in the more open  areas that were not just dungeon style corridors there are so many things that just block your path it really feels that they are just forcibly guiding you along. Ok I am over exaggerating slightly there are a few open areas as well, they just seem a bit far and few between.. at least early on in the game.  If you search these areas thoroughly many riches can be found along with some riddles/ puzzles to solve. While you never get much of a reward from solving these it was just an enjoyable side mission that I consistently indulged in. One thing I am really curious about is what to do with this gold? I keep picking gold up and there doesn’t seem to be any vendors or any area to spend it on. Maybe I have just not come across that just yet.

While I have found the game to be somewhat enjoyable so far it is hard to not see that things really seem to be lacking some polish. Characters can walk through solid objects, strange animation issues are commonplace, and  some small graphical issues plague the game. The UE3 engine has seen better days. Shadow glitches and  texture loading delays are prominent. I bet things look a great deal better on PC, but the PS3 version has some serious room for improvement.

Unfortunately so far I have only played solo, thankfully the AI is halway decent so it hasnt been the frustrating experience I feared it would be. However,  I think this is a game that could potentially be a great deal more fun if played with another.  Playing this Solo is just not my cup of tea. I will continue on for now and hope things get a bit more entertaining..

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G
REVIEW: Capsized (PC/XBLA)

REVIEW: Capsized (PC/XBLA) 3

by Anthony Delprete • Editorial, Reviews

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely LOVE ‘dual stick’ shooters. I knew my love for them was kind of alarming when I noticed that a good chunk of my games from the PSN/XBLA are dual stick based. It made me wonder if this was a genre that will always be a safe bet for myself to enjoy because not once was their a game of this type that I did not enjoy immensely. This theory of mine was debunked once Capsized hit the scene.

Capsized’s story is about a group of lost astronauts that crash land on a unknown planet and are greeted, naturally, by the hostile natives. In this ‘Dual Stick’ like shooter you traverse through the levels finding your crew mates, rebuilding your equipment, and eventually make an escape off this god damn planet. The world you crash on is absolutely beautiful and are in a Metroid like layout. The colors of the scenery are crisp and as vivid as can be and the environments range from dark claustrophobic caverns to a gorgeous sunset-lit swamp. The beauty of it all is accompanied by incredible ambient music that is played non-stop, from the main menu, to the game, and back again. Its this subtle touch that really sets this game apart and kind of makes it unforgettable by really selling this atmosphere to the game player.

But Anthony, in the beginning you led us to believe you didn’t enjoy this game, well yes the enjoyment pretty much ends there. With all this slow, moody music, comes hectic gameplay. And why they thought having a chilled atmosphere with, at times, madness is beyond me. In this game all sorts of insects are gonna swarm you, and tribesmen are gonna attack you with everything they’ve got. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but your in an astronaut suit hopping around slowly, trying your best not to get knocked around by the enemy fire but most likely your efforts will be futile. The slow movement and fast enemies is a poor combo, and a frustrating one. There are multiple ways to move around however. You’ve got a grappling hook that improves your mobility greatly, and a jet pack when there’s nothing to grapple, but your still guaranteed to get pushed around.

The game just doesn’t have any kind of fun factor. There aren’t any climatic moments or interesting puzzles to change up the action. Your basically just making your way through these levels killing whatevers in your way. No rewarding aspects whatsoever. Its a shame though because they really nailed it with the atmosphere. Its just too bad the actual gameplay is meh. If your into dual stick shooters I’d check this game out because many people are saying that the controls are tight, which is blasphemy imo. But for all others your not missing much here.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

Exclusive Interview: Ryan Drag of Backflip Studios 1

by Adam Blue • In-House, Interviews

By saying the three words incorrectly, I got a chance to interview Ryan Drag of Backflip Studios. Backflip just released Army of Darkness Defense on iOS devices. It’s incredible. Check out my video review here.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, how you wound up with Backflip Studios and what you do there.

I’m the Art Director at Backflp, and I’ve been with the company since a month after it started back in Mar. 2009. I worked at Midway games for a bit then had a similar lead artist job at a flash game company before Backflip. When we started, there were only five of us, myself being the only artist. Actually when I applied at Backflip my email was returned because they were so new they didn’t have email set up yet. After I did PaperToss and Ragdoll Blaster 2 we began to grow the art department to it’s now 5 full-time artists and 5 freelancers. We have a lot more programmers than artists so I’m still hiring.

What is some other previous video game work you’ve done?

I’ve worked on all of Backflip’s titles in some form, (although I did a lot more than usual on AoD). Before Backflip I worked on Blitz 2, Ballers 2, and a few others at Midway. Then I designed and did art for about a dozen flash games for a site called splashspot. Small(ish) games are my specialty and I plan to stay with this sort of work for as long as I can. You just never get bored or burnt out.

A very important question that will affect the rest of the interview: Do you like the Army of Darkness movie? And why?

I LOVE Army of Darkness. I saw in in theaters when I was really young and ever since have known it to be the best move of all time. In my office at Backflip I have a full-sized, framed, mint-condition, Japanese-release, movie-poster on the wall. I have seen it maybe one hundred times and can nearly recite every line start to finish from memory. In summary: I’m a pretty big fan. I’m also a fan of the Evil Dead movies but AoD is my favorite. Why do I like it? It’s hard to put into words really. Maybe I like most the fact that it fully embraces it’s over-the-top style, humor, and characters to make it so much more than a hokey horror movie. Truly it is a classic.

How did you guys secure the rights to the Army of Darkness movie? And all the sound effects?

Everything audible seems to be pulled straight from the film.
The funny thing is MGM came to us. I almost thought it was a prank because there at the top of their list of ideas was Army of Darkness. I may be the biggest fan, but I’m not the only fan at Backflip. We jumped on the opportunity. I’m not sure how much I can say about the specifics, but we were able to use most content from the movie with approval from MGM. It was pretty cool going through the raw, studio-recordings of all the lines.

How did you go about deciding on the type of game to make AoD? For the record, the ‘defense’ idea really worked. It seemed to make it easy to incorporate every possible element of the movie and totally feel like Army of Darkness. But did any genres come up?

I really pushed for the defense idea because the main part of the movie itself is a castle defense. We all agreed Ash had to be a huge part of the game, that the player needed to control. So, we made him your camera control and main weapon, but had him “auto-attack” to allow the user freedom to use abilities, and build units. Still, other ideas were thrown around. Everything from platformers, to pit-fights. Most of these didn’t grab the bulk of the movie too well. I really think we landed on the perfect scope and genre for this IP on the iPhone.

As the art director, explain how you went about the art direction of this game. It has a cartoony look to it, which is in line with the film. And for obsessive watchers like me (I’ve seen it about a hundred times myself) the characters, from specific heroes down to background characters, look exactly like their film counterparts.

I wanted to really exaggerate the characters because at that size, people still needed to connect with them. This drove most of the overall look. To maintain some of the darker feel of the movie each character was first molded in 3D, then cut up and arranged in game as a sort of “puppet”. This process created some of the more realistic textures. Each character had a movie-counterpart because the big fans know these characters and even know the “background” lines. I always laughed my ass off when “sword boy” comes running out in the movie.

Anything get left on the cutting room floor?

Several things were left out of the initial release for various reasons. I can’t say too much because some of these may appear as content updates. Some things were: Other characters, abilities, environments, and game modes. Overall we were really happy with the game we delivered, and most of these elements, though fun, would just be extra.

You say you prefer smaller games as to not get burnt out, which makes sense. But what if you had a chance to make a full-blown multi-platform Army of Darkness game?

One thing I learned about this experience is that it can be dangerous to work with an IP you are so attached to. Like I said, I’m a super-fan so it was hard to live up to even my own expectations. I feel the platform/scope/idea for this game helped keep me in check, but honestly I didn’t have much of a life for a while. With a much larger game I would just never leave the office, and maybe go insane. That being said, I don’t think given the choice I could say no to it.

And what would you vision that game to be like?

That’s a big question. I’m not sure what a “full-blown” AoD game would be, (but I would LOVE to play it). I know I would like to see Ash level/progress/grow like he does through the series. At the start of Evil Dead 1 he is just a scared kid, and by the end of AoD at S-Mart he is nearly a god. Everyone loves ash and I think at least that RPG element would be great.

You hinted at this a little bit, but can you confirm or deny a future of Blackflip and AoD?

I can’t confirm or deny anything, but I will continue to hint at content updates for the game.

Now, I’m all over the happenings of the video game industry. But I noticed a lack of AoD coverage. Is this due to marketing budget? I believe iOS games tend to sell themselves anyway, but for geek culture, I figure all the outlets would be all over this. Are you surprised?

Well part of that I’m sure is a budget thing. We were also on IGN, Spike TV, MSNBC, and several other “non-app” locations, but the best buzz always seems to come from the app-specific sites. We were also heavily promoted by apple on iTunes and in the App Store, which is really the best for point of purchase. Still with the IP that it is, I am a little surprised it wasn’t very viral.

What video games are you playing at the moment?

Portal 2 (duh), Starcraft 2 (I love strategy), Words With Friends (scrabble with spell-check), Backyard Monsters (the only Facebook game I enjoy). I try to keep my game genres diverse.

Should an Evil Dead 4 happen? If so, what would your take be? I’d like a continuation of the AoD alternate ending.

I don’t think Evil Dead 4 should happen. If you have seen Indiana Jones 4 you might get what I mean. I always assumed it would be: Ash is back in his time, but after saying the words wrong again has brought the Deadites with him. He would then be forced to go back to the cabin to stop it once and for all. It might sound cool, but would likely end up feeling forced. Still, the alternate ending might be “out-there” enough to make be it’s own movie.

—–
So there you have it. As an AoD fan and hardcore gamer, this sounded like a great way to make a game to appeal to everyone. Best video game to movie translation? You bet.

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G

MGM Pursues Developer for Army of Darkness Game 0

by Adam Blue • News

I would think anyone holding the Army of Darkness license just wouldn’t care. But apparently, MGM wanted an Army of Darkness game and went to Blackflip studios – giving them nearly free reign. From my recent interview with Ryan Drag at Backflip:

The funny thing is MGM came to us. I almost thought it was a prank because there at the top of their list of ideas was Army of Darkness. I may be the biggest fan, but I’m not the only fan at Backflip. We jumped on the opportunity.

That’s actually awesome to hear. The game has turned out awesome, as you can see by my video review, and if it’s also successful, we may be getting some more Bruce Campbell-fun in the future.

The rest of the exclusive interview will be here on BlueGamer in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Submit to N4G:
  • N4G
« 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »