Sony’s Playstation Vita has been languishing a bit, but several excellent-looking games are showing up to boost the little handheld’s library. Most notably, fresh out of Gamescom, Media Molecule (the studio behind LittleBigPlanet) has announced Tearaway, a delightful platforming and puzzle game. Most unique is the way they use the rear touch pad on the Vita: you can poke your fingers into the paper-filled world to mess with enemies, solve puzzles, or change the map. It seems very clever, and the art style is adorable. Watch the trailer after the jump! Read more…
That’s because it probably won’t come out here! While the 3DS XL is only coming out today in the US, Nintendo has already been hard at work making special edition versions of the console exclusively for Japan. Starting August 25th, pre-orders will be taken only at Pokemon Centers in Japan for an adorable Pikachu-branded version of the popular handheld. The actual system will be released on September 15th, but only those who pre-ordered will be able to get one. Perhaps some import stores will have them for sale, but my guess is that this 3DS will be hard to come by for US Pokemon fans. Read more…
Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients) is hugely popular online. The action real-time strategy game genre is a massive industry with an enormous player-bases, and Dota 2, despite still being in beta, is already a major force and one of the most-played games on Steam. Valve, after picking up the creators of the original mod, made it into a polished, full-fledged game and now they want to document it. Not the game development, though – the players themselves. The doc will follow the lives of 5 professional gamers, their struggles and triumphs. Watch the full trailer after the break! Read more…
Remember that gorgeous Zelda art book released in Japan, Hyrule Historia? It unveiled, after all the long years of debate, the official Zelda timeline, and most shocking of all, it made sense. Mostly. Sadly it was only for Japan, leaving you with the options of importing it or reading about it online. However now Dark Horse has production descriptions listing the book for January 29th, 2013 at $34.99, confirming it will come out here in the US. That’s still a ways away, but confirmation is always great. The full product description is below, if you’d like to hear more. Read more…
Two big games got new cinematics this week to promote their updates! World of Warcraft has upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, and their opening video is mighty impressive – no matter how much you complain about Kung-Fu Panda. On the other end, Team Fortress 2’s Mann VS. Machine update went live recently and the new short featuring Red and Blu Team partnering against a robot menace is also quite cool. When will Blizzard and Valve just make us some straight-up CGI feature-length films? Come on! Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Aug 15, 2012 in Videogames
Finally, a reason to dust off Sony’s latest handheld. If you bought a PlayStation Vita at launch, but have already exhausted the system’s limited selection of titles, then you’ll be pleased to hear that PlayStation (PSOne) titles will finally be supported when Sony launches its 1.80 firmware on August 28th.
Valve has been known to love their ARGs (alternate reality game), and on Saturday they launched what they called their most “fiendishly difficult” ARG yet, involving roughly 5000 pieces of data to decode and collect. You had to download strange files, equip rare items in-game, and then high-five other players while wearing said items, all wrapped in codes and riddles. Their blog says they were worried it might take a while for the community to solve it, but they pieced the puzzle together in a stunning 12 hours. The ARG unveiled a new online comic for TF2 that indicates big things in the ever-popular free-to-play game. And the comic is pretty freaking hilarious too, so check it out!
Looking for something to add that extra ‘oomph’ to your Angry Birds gameplay on PC? I know, I know, don’t look at me like that. Sure, it’s Angry Birds, but the real story here is ingenuity: Andrew Spitz and Hideaki Matsui worked together to create a fully-functioning electronic slingshot for the popular game. If there was ever a project that needed to be on Kickstarter, this is it. Check out the video detailing the device after the break. Read more…
This is one of the more impressive and better mashups I’ve seen in recent times: The Game Station and Country Club’s Fistful of Rupees fan film. Combining westerns with The Legend of Zelda series, they do a great job of making something entertaining and fun, yet not embarrassing, like so many other fan films. Particularly the costume design – that poncho that Link is wearing is incredibly cool, and needs to be a real thing, pronto. I wouldn’t even wear it, but I want it. The whole film is split into 3 parts and spans a little over 20 minutes. Parts 2 and 3 are after the break! Read more…
Some bad news for Star Trek gamers. Star Trek: Infinite Space, Gameforge’s browser-based starship combat simulator, has been officially cancelled. In truth, it’s no surprise to anyone, as the developer had been experiencing a number financial setbacks and layoffs over the past year. In order to complete development, Gameforge had been seeking a co-publisher for the title, but according to a recent statement, has finally given up the search. As we had previously reported, the game had been originally scheduled for release in late 2011.
Ever sit down to play Katamari Damacy and wonder what led the King of All Cosmos to sport those ridiculously tight pants, or chiseled abs? Why he has so many attachment issues and forces his son, the Prince, to gather everything up like a hoarder? This little montage puts it all together for us, but be forewarned, it’s collection of cut-scenes from the game We Love Katamari, and if you’re planning on playing through it someday, you might not want to spoil it for yourself. If, on the other hand, you want to laugh and cry — this one’s for you!
Portal 2 had some great characters, and Harry Callagan (Harry101UK) wanted to try his hand at them too. So why not create a CGI fan-film? This 5-minute long video features some of the best Personality Cores from Portal 2, as well as a few Harry created on his own, to add to the cast. He spent three week making this along with a few friends, and it turned out fantastic! I can’t wait to see what else he creates in the future.
I know a lot of you out there love your Shenmue, so how about an officially licensed Hazuki Tiger hoodie from Insert Coin and SEGA? This is a pretty great rendition of Ryo Hazuki’s iconic jacket, but now in hoodie form! It’s hard to find well-made and good-looking game inspired clothing, so this is a pretty neat find. Check it out here for £35.00 in a variety of sizes.
That’s one of the most grandiose claims in this latest trailer for Assassin’s Creed III from Ubisoft. While most of this is just a deep-voiced announcer selling the bullet points for the game, it is quite interesting to see how the AnvilNext engine can handle both large amounts of NPCs and complex terrain. All this said, Assassin’s Creed III is the first Assassin’s Creed game I’m actually excited for.
Who knew that the lyrics from Pokemon’s opening theme, Gotta Catch ‘Em All, lined up so well with Adele’s Rolling in the Deep? Ian Bonds did (aka Insane Ian) and with some help from his girlfriend’s vocal talents, he created this very clever and well-done parody song. Is it just me or have fan-made parody songs been really well done this past year?
BioWare made the official announcement earlier today — Star Wars: The Old Republic will be receiving a free-to-play option this fall. I know there are a handful of you out there who still play the game, and might be worried that the change in format might require you to embrace micro-transactions. You’ll be pleased to know that might not be the case, after all. Indeed, there will be several options available to you. If you choose to go the free-to-play route, you will have access to all eight character classes and can play for free until you reach level 50, at which point, high-level content can be purchased through micro-transactions. If however, you choose to go the subscription route instead, you’ll be spared that fate with unlimited access to the content. But wait, there’s more…
Bioware cinematic designer James McVinnie was excited by the prospect of Source Filmmaker – it’s an easy-to-use tool allowing someone to make digital movies using game models. Combined with motion-tracking from two Kinects, he created Practical Problems, a short TF2 film in which two Engineers duke it out. It’s really quite cute, and shows the potential of Source Filmmaker to open up the animation world. Many of these videos are mighty impressive, and they’re onlygetting better!
Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but here’s another really fascinating Kickstarter: Castle Story. While we may be flooded with way too many Kickstarters, I have to say, I love that people are embracing them! Castle Story is a strategy game that revolves around sending your chubby yellow minions to gather supplies on your floating island world. With these, you can build up your castle and defend yourself against an onslaught of enemies. A little Minecraft, a little RTS, mixed in with real-time physics and this game is looking pretty neat! Support them on their Kickstarter page, here.
I like taking a look at the unique stuff that comes out of the modding community. You’re always guaranteed to find something quirky, cool, or often, barely functional. That said, Garry’s Mod (the popular Source Engine physics playground) has been a fertile garden for budding modders and this roller coaster mod will satisfy the lack of Roller Coaster Tycoon in everyone’s lives. The best part is you can build more items on top of the coaster, thus making things a bit more crazy than the usual Tycoon game.
After much of the hubbub surrounding the initial release of Final Fantasy XIV, it seems Square Enix has been trying to restart the messy MMO. Now we’ve gotten a new trailer and several screenshots featuring the new title “A Realm Reborn.” Dropping the “2.0” moniker is a good idea, I’d bet. They had released some screenshots at E3, but now, here comes the hype trailer. Will this bring players back and improve the situation? Let’s hope so, as visually, the new cinematic looks great – it’s even tempting me. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 26, 2012 in Tech, Videogames
Another Kickstarter, I know. I’m getting sick of seeing them posted everywhere too, but I still stumble across a cool one every now and then. For example, here’s a neat little project that’s almost fully funded. The GameDock is a device designed to take the iOS platform to the next level by offering a classic console experience. It claims to be compatible with iCade titles, so there should already be a handful of games supported. The dock itself will be able to connect to your HD displays via HDMI out with a crisp 1080p resolution. Some of the games will even have support for two players. Just note that in order for them to send you an actual unit, you’ll need to “donate” at least $125 at this point, and you’ve gotta ask yourself, do you really need an iOS console? Really? Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 24, 2012 in Videogames
The other day Kotaku posted a rumor stating Final Fantasy Versus XIII had been cancelled. More and more sites reported on it, ourselves included, which eventually led Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada to refute the claim via Twitter. Not only did he deny the cancellation, Wada even mentioned having recently attended a presentation for the game, and being incredibly impressed by the quality of the cityscape. This is great news for diehard fans who had purchased a PS3 with the expectation of being able to purchase the exclusive title. Of course, whether or not it’ll remain a Playstation 3 exclusive remains to be seen.
Alright everyone, I’ve got some bad news: it seems that Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been cancelled. Wait, what’s that? You’re not surprised? That look of apathy and disinterest you’re giving me is surely the result of something else, right? After six years of waiting, I suppose people just gave up hope, especially with so little news on every front. While this is still a rumor, let’s just say it the most obvious and sensible rumor we’ve heard in a while. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Jul 19, 2012 in Videogames
A few weeks back, Polytron decided to release a patch for their Xbox 360-exclusive puzzle platformer Fez. The patch was meant to address a number of issues from being unable to run the game on older consoles, to simply fixing a series of crashes that can occur in specific situations. Unfortunately, while the patch seemingly eliminated the majority of the issues being experienced by players, a new bug was introduced which rendered certain end-game save files unusable. The patch was quickly pulled but after reviewing the issue with Microsoft, Polytron has opted to once again release the patch as is. According to some sources, Microsoft would charge them nearly $40k just to implement a new one!
