Archive for December, 2010

Killzone 3 leaks show split-screen co-op, giant robots 06 December 2010 at 2:00 am by Admin

Killzone 3 leaks show split-screen co-op, giant robots screenshot

Sony has sprung a Killzone 3 media leak after sending preview code to the wrong people. The most important aspect of this info flood is the revelation that Guerrilla’s red-eyed shooter series is introducing split-screen co-op to the mix. 

As well as this slice of news, an enterprising young snitch has uploaded ten minutes of preview footage and revealed an off-screen battle with a gigantic mech that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Chaos Space Marine Defiler. It’s also f*cking huge. 

Aside from the fact that Rico (ugh) is looking like he’ll still be a major character, it would appear that Killzone 3’s campaign mode is going to be pretty epic. I can’t wait to check it out, and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that Rico finally gets killed. It’s the dream of all true Killzone fans.

+ This Fallout: New Vegas mod is the best mod ever By Admin 05 December 2010 at 9:00 pm and have No Comments

This Fallout: New Vegas mod is the best mod ever screenshot

This person made a Fallout: New Vegas mod to add one single line of text. It cannot be unseen.

Someone made a Fallout:NV mod that adds a single line of text. (FIXED) [Reddit]

+ Sony patents show radically different Move controller By Admin 05 December 2010 at 8:30 pm and have No Comments

Sony patents show radically different Move controller screenshot

Sony’s Move motion control system is not too far removed from that of the Wii, when it comes right down to it. Yes, detecting the wand’s position in three dimensions is a huge improvement over Nintendo’s effort but the device is hardly what one would call staggeringly different.

If the Move controller shown in these patents found by PlayStation Lifestyle had been the final product, it would be more difficult to make that claim. This design filed with the US Patent Office in May of 2009 would have featured an analog thumbstick on the controller itself, possibly eliminating the need for the Navigation controller. The Move button which takes up most of the space on the final design would have been moved above the trigger.

But that’s downright blasé when compared to the other proposed features. The bottom of the controller sports a trackball and the patent suggests that this portion of the controller could be modular with different fittings. The patent uses an example of placing another cluster of controller face buttons here. The reason that such features would exist is that, in this version of Move, the entire controller can be turned with the Move Sphere facing down and used as a flightstick-style controller. Madness!

And that’s not all for the Sphere. The glowing ball of justice would also feature a pressure sensor when used in joystick mode, so pushing down on the ball itself would act like a button as well. One can only imagine what sort of creative uses that would have been employed for.

If you thought Sony’s design for Move was conservative before, this makes it look quite tame indeed.

MULTI-POSITIONAL THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONTROLLER [FreePatentsOnline via PlayStation Lifestyle]

+ Dtoid (the show) week 8: Bad ass Hollywood all stars By Admin 05 December 2010 at 6:10 pm and have No Comments

Dtoid (the show) week 8: Bad ass Hollywood all stars screenshot

I can’t even begin to recap all the stuff that happened this week on The Destructoid Show. Despite the fact that we’re in a pre-VGA’s news lull, we still found plenty to talk about. Off the top of my head, I know that Tofu Boy, the Uncharted movie, the Inception game, the Gran Turismo 5 review, Back to the Future, Videodrome, Binary Domain, and Mario Sports Mix were all in there somewhere, but the details are sketchy.

I mostly remember Tara Long being particularly hilarious this week. I wish the camera were on her all the time. I bet a lot of you wish the same thing.

You can check out last week’s episodes below, and if you like them, why not subscribe on YouTube or iTunes (in HD or large sizes).

Do that thang?

 

+ The Weekend Hotness: Poor ducks By Admin 05 December 2010 at 5:59 pm and have No Comments

These poor ducks! It’s so cute yet so sad!

We’re revealing Renegade Kid’s next title, Holmes checked out Fluidity, Pac-Man’s ghosts are explained, Prototype 2 is more or less confirmed and more happened over the weekend.

Destructoid Originals:
Dtoid Live – Win Golden Eye 007, gold controllers, shirts
Renegade Kid set to reveal next game; we have a secret!
Games of the Week for 12/5/2010: Riding elephants edition

Community:
Community blogs of 12/04 & 12/05
Forum of the day: Who the hell are you?! Pictures thread!

Contests:
Contest: Win a 250GB PlayStation 3 & TRON: Evolution!
Contest: Win a Blue DSi XL and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn!

Previews:
Preview: Fluidity

News:
FlatOut Wii is out, here is a stunt trailer
BAM! POW! KABLAM! Batman remake finally released
Weekend Charity: Project Go Kart
Civilization IV theme nominated for a Grammy
Swords and Soldiers now has Move support, has sale
An explanation of how Pac-Man’s ghosts work
Australia to finally get an R18+ rating
Udon working on their ‘biggest Mega Man project yet’
Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Games coming to Facebook

Offbeat:
Doctor Octoroc’s new chiptunes album is magical

Media:
Canabalt 2 player coming to the Winnitron 1000
Prototype 2 (basically) confirmed
New Bionic Commando 2 gameplay jumps into action
Lucid is out and ready for you to play
RUMOR: Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma for Street Fighter 4 3DS
Ni No Kuni ads make us desperate for the game

+ Games of the Week for 12/5/2010: Riding elephants edition By Admin 05 December 2010 at 5:00 pm and have No Comments

Games of the Week for 12/5/2010: Riding elephants edition screenshot

Mind not that there exists such a thing as a “behind-the-scenes” interview for a commercial. If that has to be a thing, let them all have Conan O’Brien in them.

We played games at Destructoid during the last week and we’re itching to tell you all about it. Keep reading and you’ll find out what the best console audio visualizer is. The answer may surprise you.

Holmes: I played Goldeneye on the Wii and I didn’t hate it. Also played Canabalt, Meat Boy, Cave Story DSiWare, Pokemon White, all the Bit.Trip games, and some other stuff that I liked. 

Oh, and Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents fans, watch out for Michael Jackson on the DS. It’s a trap. 

Ross: I’ve been playing Majin: The Forsaken Kingdom, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Angry Birds: Seasons (SO GOOD). I also just started playing WoW again, since Cataclysm showed up at my door with a time card…

Concelmo: Almost nothing but The Sly Collection. Love those games so much. BENTLEY! Playing this collection is making me hope for a similar high-def remake of the three Jak games on the PlayStation 3. That announcement may make me lost my mind.

Also a little Prototype for the Xbox 360 — never got a round to playing it with it was released all those years ago. I like it so far, even though I have trouble controlling sometimes.

Oh, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for review! So pretty!

Chester: Been playing some CrimeCraft, which is actually pretty fun for a free-to-play third-person shooter MMO. Also played the PSN game Shatter for the first time, as it’s free for PlayStation Plus subscribers; I know I’m late to the party, but this game is pretty incredible. Also played a Cho Aniki game for the first time, thanks to a download code Dale gave me, and I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Oh, and: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time HD and Donkey Kong Country Returns with the wife. 

Also dabbled in Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 — previews of both coming this week!

Concelmo: OMG SHATTER! That’s one of my favorite games EVER!

Sarkar: I didn’t play any games this week, but I did turn on my Xbox 360 last night in order to plug in my iPod and listen to A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, the greatest holiday album of all time. That’s when I discovered one more (admittedly minor) thing that the PS3 has over the 360: pretty much all of the 360’s music visualizers are low-res garbage that looks like it was put together by some stoned college students.

Chester: Considering only stoned college kids are probably staring at a visualizer while their music plays, I don’t see the problem.

Bennett, H.: I’ve been playing travel to ‘Scotland with your Boyfriend to help him move all his stuff, get snowed in, spend 9 hours driving what should take 20 minutes, go 26 hours without food or drink and then spend the night on the floor of a community centre with 670 other people – 11/10. Basically me and my boyfriend got a glimpse of life when the zombie apocalypse happens, let me tell you that it is pretty bleak. However in other news I did start playing Venetica and now I’m sat here watching the boyfriend play Break Down on the Xbox while I write the Destructoid.com Christmas Gift Guide. 

Holmes: I’m glad you survived, Ms. Bennett!

Also, the Sega Saturn had the best visualizer of all time:

Long: I’ve been playing all the games I bought on Steam last week. Super Meat Boy, Bit.Trip BEAT, then some filler stuff that came in the Indie Puzzle Pack – Cogs and Puzzle Dimension. Super Meat Boy is super hard on Steam, I don’t recommend it.

On the Wii, I’ve been trying to work my way through the Bit.Trip games. Tried out Core, Runner, and Void. Beat is still my favorite by far.

Bennett, C.: So into Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. GHOST TRAIN!

Also, still loving Zuma Blitz, and played a bit of CityVille (but I have no idea why).

Devore: Now that I have a new computer, I can finally play Minecraft in full-screen mode. I played other stuff, but everything pales in comparison to that. Clearly.

Razak: I started and beat Limbo, which I am now totally in love with. Absolutely amazing puzzle pieces in it. Going to jump into Enslaved tonight. Hoping that goes good as well.

Sterling: December is a slow month for a reviews editor so I am replaying some old games, chiefly Lost Odyssey and Killzone 2. Still damn good fun.

I also bought Postal 2 from GOG. I can’t say it was my greatest purchasing decision.

Bennett, C.: Replaying Lost Odyssey sounds grand. I might do that myself.

Sterling: You won’t regret it. Jansen is still a fucking pimp.

+ Doctor Octoroc’s new chiptunes album is magical By Admin 05 December 2010 at 5:00 pm and have No Comments

Doctor Octoroc's new chiptunes album is magical screenshot

After These Messages is Doctor Octoroc’s new chiptunes album, and it’s unbelievably good. Granted, if you are at all familiar with his prior work, it’s not that unbelievable; this is the man who brought us 8-Bit Jesus, after all. Those new to his musical stylings won’t be getting much sleep tonight — I can tell you that much.

Yes, this is another one of those pay-what-you-want offerings. The 30+ songs are based on television shows and commercials that will likely be relevant to your interests. Doctor Octoroc has a preview video with a few samples, which you should definitely check out if you aren’t feeling confident. “The A-Team,” “Gummibears,” and “Cheers,” were more than enough for me.

Donate and download. Your ears will most certainly thank you.

+ Ni No Kuni ads make us desperate for the game By Admin 05 December 2010 at 3:00 pm and have No Comments

Ni No Kuni ads make us desperate for the game screenshot

Ni No Kuni: The Jet Black Sorcerer landed in Japan recently and they got some great ads for it. OK, so the ads are just normal ads, but they show off the game, which instantly makes them great. Look at that massive instruction book. It’s glorious! There is still no U.S. release date which makes us very, very sad.

I think Colette summed it up best in response to this tip coming in: “I want this game so bad I could cry.”

Already weeping, Colette. Already weeping.

A Glimpse At The Grand Ni No Kuni: The Jet Black Sorcerer Spellbook [Siloconera]

+ Preview: Fluidity By Admin 05 December 2010 at 1:00 pm and have No Comments

Preview: Fluidity screenshot

Fluidity is way better than in looks, so much so that it’s making me depressed.

I seriously doubt that this game is going to find its audience when it’s released for WiiWare tomorrow. It  looks too much like your average throw-away “edu-tainment” WiiWare title to get most gamers’ attention. That’s a shame, because beneath Fluidity’s bland exterior lies an smart, surprising, and thoroughly “game-y” videogame.

Hit the jump for my full preview.

 

Fluidity is a puzzle platformer that manages to pack a huge breadth of gameplay experiences together into a tight and clever little package. I expected a lot of gameplay variety from game about something as transformable as water, but I still came away surprised with how well Fluidity cashes in on its potential.

The game tasks the player to move a small body of water around various environments to solve platforming puzzles. Just like in real life, your in-game water can take on three forms; solid (ice), liquid (pool), or vapor (cloud). Every time you change forms, it feels like booting up a new game. The game can go from giving Super Meat Boy flashbacks, to sending out a distinct Loco Roco vibe, to Incredible Machine mode all in seconds. Using Ice feels the most like a traditional platformer, the pool of water feels more like a 2D resource management game, and the cloud-form takes the game out of the platformer genre entirely and into a weird exploring shmup mode. 

With ice, you can jump and crush enemies by stomping on them, but likewise, you can get crushed by various environmental hazards. The pool of water isn’t as vulnerable to attacks. For instance, if the pool is hit by a wall of falling spikes, it wont have any effect. In fact, the only things that seem to damage the liquid form are the game’s enemies; an inky group of blob-like creatures called “the influence”.

Though it’s easier to avoid damage when you’re liquid, that form isn’t without its disadvantages. Your pool of water can jump just like the solid form, but landing from a jump in such a malleable state will lead to a big splash. Splitting your pool into smaller puddles doesn’t do any damage, but it does make things a lot harder to control. Before you know it, you’ll be controlling three or four little pools of water at a time. If your pool stays split apart for two long, the smaller pools will evaporate, which equates to tons of damage.

Keeping your pool fully formed is half the battle where you’re liquid, and the game takes some liberties with reality to assist the player in that task. Holding down the “1″ button causes the water to magically bunch together, even if that means defying gravity or other laws of physics. Though the game’s visuals are generally straight laced, it’s not afraid to get weird once and a while. This is just one of the many additional powers that each form of water can acquire.

The last form is the cloud, which is invulnerable to physical attacks, but likewise, has limited capacity to have physical impact on its surroundings. It feels a bit like controlling a ghost. You can fly and go just about anywhere, but you can’t touch anything. You can, however, hit enemies and obstacles with an electric shock, or turn back into a liquid by raining.

So how does all that fit together? Well, for average game of Fluidity may go something like this. You need to grab a gear and get it into a machine. Get the machine working, and you’ve cleared the level. Starting off in liquid form, you can ride a waterwheel up to the gear, taking care to keep from excessive splashing or otherwise losing yourself in the process. After you collect all any lost puddles of self, you can grab the gear and keep moving. From their, you’d be wise to slosh over to the a machine that will transform you into ice. That way, you can freeze the gear to you, so you wont have to worry about dropping it.

Now with the gear frozen inside yourself, you’ll be able to clear areas that the pool couldn’t get by (like grates and vacuum pipes), while being armed with the ability to push down switches and stick to walls. Eventually you’ll hit a locked door that you can’t jump over or smash through, which means it’s time to switch to cloud form and float on. You’ll need to leave your gear behind in the process, but by flying over the wall, you can get to a generator. Shock the generator with lightening, and the previously locked door opens electronically. From there, you switch back to water, grab your gear, freeze yourself back into ice with the gear inside you (again, to avoid gear dropping), and get over to that broken machine.

Oh wait, did I say that you should freeze yourself into ice again? That might not be such a great idea, because once you get to the broken machine, you wont be able to do much with it. The gear is still frozen in your body, dummy! How are you going to get it out? I guess it’s time to backtrack a bit to melt yourself into liquid, then get that gear back to the broken machine (hopefully without too much splashing along the way).

That’s just a small sample of what one of the game’s puzzles might entail. Hopefully it showed you how switching between forms in Fluidity is more than just a hollow gimmick. It’s really a lot of fun, and feels totally legit, in an old school gaming sort of way. That’s really just the start of what Fluidity has to offer in terms of traditional gaming features. The game filled with expansive environments, bonus levels, boss fights, power-ups, and various unlockables. It actually feels a bit like Metroid, where gaining a new power and returning to an old haunt will potentially open up all new experiences.

Even though I really like the game, I’m not ready to full recommend Fluidity just yet. I can’t say for sure if you’ll be able to get past the game’s nearly personality-free presentation. It may be too much for you to bare. Either way, I implore you to check out the demo when it releases. One thing I can say for sure is that you really can’t judge Fluidity by its cover. It’s a “real” videogame that just happens to be disguised as shovelware.


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+ Renegade Kid set to reveal next game; we have a secret! By Admin 05 December 2010 at 12:00 pm and have No Comments

Renegade Kid set to reveal next game; we have a secret! screenshot

Renegade Kid, developer of fine Nintendo DS titles like Dementium and Moon, will reveal its new game tomorrow. Studio co-founder Jools Watsham has even been dropping hints on the next title all over his Twitter account.

Here’s what we know so far:

  • It’s not a first-person shooter.
  • It is on the Nintendo DS. 
  • It features “many exotic locations,” but you can rule out hospitals and outer space. 
  • It “does include mud. It is not, however, of the mutant variety.”
  • It’s not a third-person shooter/platform game, but it is played from a third-person perspective. 
  • It doesn’t feature multiple enemies, but it does feature multiplayer.

Okay, so we actually know more than we’re letting on. In fact, we know what the game is — we’ve even played it — and we’ll be revealing it exclusively on Destructoid tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow, December 6, at 3:00 PM PST, for the reveal trailer and first details on Renegade Kid’s fourth title. Any guesses?