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Here’s a little video that I whipped up for Destructoid LIVE, which is a very special treat from me to you. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 3DS and not only experience the power of 3D gaming without glasses, but capture that power on video in order to show you. 

Now, for the first time, we have video footage of the 3DS effect in action. This is easily my favorite video I’ve ever done.

While wandering the PAX 10 show floor, I bumped into Dtoid artist extraordinaire Grumpy Turtle as he was playing the new Bonk game. Luckily for me, the game supports co-op, so I dropped in see what condition the game’s condition was in.

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

Did I mention that I stayed up all night last night editing video? Because I did. My brain’s acting weird(er).

Anyway, enjoy the video!

You can always count on Swery65 for some interesting Tweets. The unique blend of “flavored” English and thoroughly bizarre sentiments makes Swery one of the most consistently interesting developers to follow. He’s also a bugger for a good tease.

Such a tease came forth recently when the director hinted in no subtle way that he may be involved with Square Enix’s upcoming PSP game, Lord of Arcana. 

When asked what he was currently working on by a fan, Swery had this to say: “Is it means ‘Load of Arcana’? I can’t say for that. But you can know it from the internet, maybe,”

Of course, Swery65 may be messing about, or he could have gotten the game wrong, but if he is involved in any way with Lord of Arcana, then I’m all over that shit. In fact, Swery should probably be involved with every game ever made. 

Deadly Premonition Director Working On Lords of Arcana [Siliconera]

[Update: I've been informed that Access Games is indeed working on this, and that Swery is on the team! This is SO getting bought!]

If you were at PAX, you know the lines to play Guild Wars 2 were long. There’s a good reason — Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be one of the most interesting MMOs we’ve seen in a long, long time.

During PAX, some of the fine gentlemen at ArenaNet took me aside to show me some of the cool stuff they’re planning for the game. We already wrote about some of it in our gamescom coverage, but there was some new information available at the show, and we really went in-depth on some of the systems that we previously covered. Read on to hear about my time checking out Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)
Developer: ArenaNet
Publisher: NCsoft
To be released: 2011

The first part of what I saw was touched on by Ian in his gamescom post — the customization and personality choices you make at the beginning of the game. The choices you make for your character at the outset have a massive impact on your personal quest line — a series of quests that are tailored to your character based on their background, race, personality, and the choices they’ve made throughout the game. Functionally, these quests are handled like your traditional quests in MMOs: NPCs with tasks that continue your personal story will have icons above their heads, and you simply speak to them to begin your quest.

Unlike traditional MMO quests, these tasks will differ wildly depending on what kind of character you’re playing and what you’ve previously allowed to happen in the story. A human noble who prefers to solve problems through diplomacy rather than bloodshed will have a totally different story arc and set of quests than a brute who grew up on the streets. To make the story even more personal, your character will be directly inserted into cutscenes, and the cutscenes will also vary significantly depending on all of the previous factors and variables mentioned.

Personalization is a big deal in this game, and this is also reflected in your appearance. The actual armor your character wears is purely cosmetic; stats and bonuses are instead conferred through crests that you socket into your armor. While it does sacrifice realism for the sake of personalization, since in the real world a pirate costume is obviously less effective than a full suit of plate armor, the crests will allow you to give your character a look you actually like, and will hopefully keep everyone from running around in identical gear. It also allows characters to become legitimately recognizable beyond the name above their head, with the idea being that you start recognizing people on your server simply based on their looks.

Your personal story quests, however, likely won’t make up the majority of your playtime. In fact, a good portion of what you’ll probably spend most of your time doing in Guild Wars 2 won’t even be NPC-given quests at all. The dynamic event system that’s being introduced is much more impressive than I was first led to believe, and one of the main reasons I nominated Guild Wars 2 as a Destructoid pick for PAX Game of the Show.

When this system is described as dynamic, it really means it. The only NPCs with quest symbols over their heads are for your personal story — the rest of your adventuring will be done by exploring the map. An NPC in each area will mark off a large number of spots on your map where people may need help, but you won’t have any idea what actually needs doing, if anything, until you get there. Events are randomly coded to trigger at various times all across the map, and most events feature multiple ways to contribute.

Visit a farm when everything is fine, and a farmer may ask you to help feed his cows or water his crops. Come across the farm as a bandit raid is occurring, and you can either jump in and kill the bandits, or run around and help try to put out the fires they’ve started. Stumble across the farm after it’s been captured by the bandits, and fight to reclaim the farm and drive the bandits off. Other examples shown included fighting a giant lizard-monster in a river — it was preventing fishermen from fishing, which subsequently crippled the nearby village’s economy — and a mass-scale battle where the Charr fought off an enormous dragon. Whatever the outcome of the event, it affects the game world and subsequent events — keep too many bandits alive, and eventually they’ll start expanding, forcing players to actively thin their numbers.

These events are designed to be social, with players able to jump in and out at any time. You don’t need to have any quest active, have a group or party all gathered up, or have talked to any NPC — if you come across an event and participate, you get experience and loot for it. As players join and drop an event, the event scales accordingly. If there are only two people around to fight the river monster, the fight’s difficulty will be appropriate for two people. If a group of ten joins the fight halfway through, the monster will change, instantly becoming stronger and gaining new crowd-control attacks. Upon completion of the event, everyone who participated in some way will get some sort of reward — the developers said they specifically want to avoid scenarios where large groups of players work their way through a battle or dungeon, and only two or three actually get any equipment or gold from it.

Continuing the discussion on combat and events, ArenaNet told me that they want to make sure players don’t get too bored while locked into a specific role. Classes are present in the game, but each class will have a wide variety of options. I was shown the Elementalist, who is mainly a spellcaster, and how she could switch between roles. As an Elementalist, she could attune herself to one of the four elements. In Fire attunement, her skills were mostly focused on quick, direct damage. When she switched to Water attunement, her skills became much more support-based, and her role in the event shifted from dealing damage to helping all the other players around her. I also was shown a Soldier who switched between a two-handed heavy-weapon fighting style to a ranged style using his bow.

You even have the option of avoiding combat. Any character of any profession can revive fallen heroes, so if you’re tired of flinging fireballs, you can roam the battlefield as a sort of combat medic, picking up any casualties of battle. In the dragon battle, some players made it out to the outskirts of the fight, where they were able to use mortars and other siege weapons to battle the dragon from a safe distance.

Regardless of the role you play in an event, the game itself is very action-oriented. Characters can run, jump, and dodge in the middle of fighting, and almost every skill can be used while your character is moving. Auto-attack is non-existent, so you need to be pushing a button every time you want your character to act. The developers have said that they want players to feel as if they’re actually doing something when fighting, but still want to keep an RPG feel to the entire system.

Even though the dual-class system from the original Guild Wars is gone, there are some cool ways in which different professions can interact. Many skills you use in combat will leave a mark on the ground — the example I saw was when an Elementalist threw down a wall of fire. In addition to damaging enemies in its path, the fire continued to burn on the ground as the battle progressed. If someone with a ranged weapon shoots an arrow through the fire, they end up shooting a fire arrow. A Soldier who uses a whirlwind skill to move through the fire will fling fireballs about as he spins. These cross-class skills appear to add an entirely separate strategic layer to battle, as you not only need to focus on simply hurting the enemy or healing your comrades, but must also consider how to best maximize your cross-class ability potential.

In addition to dynamic events and personal story quests, there will be some instances as well, especially as characters near the endgame. Instances are currently planned to be five-man, and like most MMOs can be run multiple times. You’ll also be able able to revisit older instances with lower-level friends without steamrolling everything for them — the instance will downscale your level to match those you are partied with, allowing you to still enjoy the challenges of earlier instances and to group with your friends. How much these instances will differ from the standard MMO instance is unknown, as the actual inside of one wasn’t shown during my demo.

One of the lessons learned from the first Guild Wars was that while instances are good for the story, they aren’t great at building a community, and community is one of the main focuses of Guild Wars 2. The cities of Guild Wars 2 are being designed as social spaces — ArenaNet wants people to do more than just show up in a city to use the auction house and immediately take off. There will be significant NPC interaction in the cities, and one example I saw of this was a collection of “activities” scattered throughout the city, which were functionally short mini-games like a shooting range. I’m not quite sure that players will want to spend a lot of time in the cities instead of participating in events, but there may be enough features in the cities by launch that make the cities legitimate places in which to hang out.

It’s difficult to talk about this game (and probably unprofessional) without getting overly excited, but it’s great to see ArenaNet try something truly different in the MMO market, especially since so many current MMOs follow extremely similar structures. It’s also great that, like the original game, Guild Wars 2 won’t have a monthly subscription fee. That said, it’s important to approach any upcoming release with some degree of skepticism, but I will truly be shocked if Guild Wars 2 ends up as a failure.

While talking with my good friend and E. Honda impersonator Gerald Hom of Capcom-Unity fame, the good man let some inside info slip. Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 would feature “the Klog.” He then encouraged me to “check out the Klog!”

I headed over to the game’s kiosk to see what all the fuss was about.

I won’t spoil the rest. Check out the video to see “the Klog” for yourself.

Tecmo Koei has announced that Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 is in the works and that it will be released in Japan this Winter. Dynasty Warriors Gundam is a mixture of Gundam’s impenetrable world of mech-based anime politics and Omega Force’s hack n’ slash nonsense. 

The biggest change in Gundam 3 is the art style, which has now taken on a cel-shaded look. Also new to the mix is an improved AI system with enemies that call for reinforcements, and worldwide online co-op. Sounds like quite the robust sequel if you’re into that kind of thing!

We’ll likely see more at the Tokyo Game Show.

Gundam Musou 3 Beam Sabers PS3 And Xbox 360 This Winter [Siliconera]

Here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for; Jim Sterling playing Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Things get pretty adorable pretty quickly, and I’m not just talking about violent puffballs made from a soft, knit-able substance. 

Or am I?

Watch for yourself and find out.

Remember those little plastic games you had as a kid where you’d tilt them around to make little silver balls go into holes? Would you like to play a game like that, only with ten times the frustration? If so, then Oceana is the game for you!

What? I pick a free App of the day. I never said whether or not the App had to be good. Seriously, check this one out. You’ll feel dreadful after ten minutes!

[Seen a Free App that needs a plug? Hitting me up on Twitter is the fastest way to get my attention! Be sure to get me before 9am Central though!]

_{[We sent Community Member Ace Flibble off to Namco Bandai in London to take a look at Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. -- Hollie Bennett]}

Namco Bandai recently held some preview events for their upcoming action-adventure title, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West here in the United Kingdom. I along with several other Dtoiders were lucky enough to go to Namco Bandai’s offices in London and play three hours worth of the game for ourselves.

Having followed Destructoid’s previous coverage of the game, including Dale North’s preview, Maurice Tan’s impressions of the game and Hollie Bennett’s interview with the lead designer of the title, I was expecting the game to be decent to mildly great.

I was in for a gigantic shock. 

I picked up the controller, selected “New Journey” and sat back in my big, comfy chair. Thirty seconds later I was sitting forward and staring wide-eyed at the screen as I controlled the hero of the game, Monkey, escaping from a burning slave ship. Pipes were bursting all around, sections of the ship tore away and combat mechs were deployed to stop me (as well as to teach me the basics of combat).

Before long I was blown out into the open, struggling to keep a grip on what remained of the wings as I dodged explosions and pieces of the stricken craft. Barely two minutes into the game and already I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.

[Editor's note: You can check out this section in video form right here. -- Hollie]

Much has been said about Enslaved’s world and atmosphere, but it really does bear repeating that this is one of the liveliest and most awe-inspiring settings you’ll ever have the pleasure of exploring. I defy anyone to play this game for more than ten-minutes without stopping to take in the world around them. From the mammoth spectacle of a ruined skyscraper overrun by trees and vines, to a fleeting glimpse of a deer — no matter where I pointed the camera there was always a new and intriguing sight.

What was perhaps even more impressive was that despite all of this detail, the game never had to stop to load within each massive level. Loading screens only popped up between chapters and before particularly lengthy cutscenes.

However, although the world of Enslaved appears random and wild at first, this bright and lush setting wasn’t created just to produce pretty screenshots. Ninja Theory have put the environment to good use, with patches of vibrant flowers and vivid signs from a bygone era offering visual clues as to where the player should be heading next. It wasn’t long before I realised that I had been following the enticing sights of the world around me more than I had been paying attention to any HUD markers. Taking in the gorgeous surroundings often yielded quicker routes to my destinations, as well as providing my with some of the most achingly stunning visuals I have seen in any videogame to date.

The enemies — a variety of robots designed for nothing more than ripping Monkey and Trip to pieces — deserve a great deal of attention themselves. Each type of mech is superbly designed and they all felt both deadly and yet oddly beautiful at the same time. The “C-Dog” mech in particular was quite stunning, albeit terrifying, to view in motion.

Combat was a highly enjoyable affair, simple to get to grips with yet increasingly rewarding as I took on more varied and more dangerous mechs. Monkey has access to the typical normal and heavy attacks as is common in most action games and brawlers, as well as a wide attack to give himself breathing room and a stun attack. He can of course also use his agility to dodge incoming attacks and he has a shield to block attacks, although this wore out after a certain amount of damage and took some time to recharge.

At first, combat seemed to be an overly-simple task of running straight up to a lone mech and mashing the standard attack button to stun it, followed by a heavy attack to finish it off. However, very quickly I found myself having to make full use of Monkey’s skills and agility to survive. I made the mistake of taking certain combinations of mech too lightly and paid the price; if you’re thinking this is a one-combo button-masher, think again. Enslaved stays away from the typical ethos of sending countless identical enemies against you to feign challenge and instead opts for a much smarter approach, giving you smaller groups of mixed enemies that require real thought and skill to deal with. This ensured that battle never got repetitive or too easy and this resulted in some of the most enjoyable combat I’ve experienced in an action title.

The combat also found its way into some of the puzzles, as several times in the chapters we were allowed to play I came across rooms which needed to be crossed without waking dormant mechs. It was incredibly tense to be walking just a few feet away from a group of sleeping mechs, aware that walking just slightly too far to one side might result in a hard and potentially lethal battle. Combine this with helping Trip cross the region as well and you’ve got some extremely compelling gameplay on your hands.

Before playing Enslaved, I had been worried that Trip would prove to be nothing more than a nuisance. After all, nobody enjoys escort missions. However, I am glad to report that any such fears are quite unnecessary, as Trip provides some of the most interesting and enjoyable gameplay and is a genuinely endearing character. She’s intelligent, she can defend herself (to an extent), she’s useful and not once did helping her feel like any kind of arduous task. In addition to opening doors and operating levers that Monkey can’t, she can distract enemies to draw their fire away from Monkey as he makes his way through an area. She can upgrade Monkey’s abilities, shield, health and heal him too. This was all controlled using a simple menu that only required a simple flick of the analog stick to operate, continuing the Enslaved theme of keeping controls basic and instinctive.

As well as battering mechs with Monkey’s staff, a good portion of these chapters was spent swinging from branches, climbing pipes and scaling walls. All of this was handled using just one action button to leap and swing and the analog stick to point Monkey in the direction I wanted him to jump or climb. Unlike many games of this type, especially those that try to get one button to do everything, Enslaved actually pulled it off very smoothly. When I got my timing right it appeared as though Monkey was leaping around the world almost automatically, with each animation flowing into the next seamlessly.

While Monkey’s acrobatic antics were easy to pull off, they didn’t come without a sense of danger. Although it seemed as though Monkey wouldn’t allow himself to be flung into the unknown, Ninja Theory have done a wonderful job of making exploration and climbing feel tense without there being any real danger of aiming a jump poorly and falling to your death. As sure-footed as Monkey is, I repeatedly found myself holding my breath as he attempted each impossible jump and it was always quite a relief when I landed on solid ground.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the game for me was the presentation of the characters. Never before in a videogame have I seen such incredible facial animation. During every cutscene I found myself stunned in silent amazement at the accuracy and believability of the characters’ performances. In the three hours that we were playing I didn’t notice a single stilted or stiff animation. Every expression looked so natural that it was quite hard to believe I was playing a videogame and not watching a big-budget computer-animated film. This is matched by a superb script and wonderful voice acting. There wasn’t a single line of dialogue that felt forced or out of place and within the first hour I found myself caring far more for Monkey and Trip than I ever have about any character in a videogame previously. I even found myself tearing up twice, quite a feat given I spent a mere three hours with the game and from the looks of it had only just begun to get into the meat of the plot. Andy Serkis (Monkey) and Lindsay Shaw (Trip) both give Oscar-worthy performances.

It is almost a shame when each scene ends and you are returned to gameplay, as both characters have been brought to life so brilliantly and each scene is truly captivating. Frankly, Enslaved’s presentation is worth the price of admission alone; the fact that the gameplay is so well-crafted as well is just a bonus.

I can honestly say I have never been sucked into a game as fast as I was by Enslaved. I didn’t leave my seat once while we were playing and the three hours were up seemingly very quickly. Within one minute I was hooked on the gameplay; within half an hour I was hooked on the characters and the world. Whether it was climbing around a damaged and disintegrating plane as it hurtled to the ground, swinging from pillars and branches to get to an enemy turret, sprinting from a giant mechanical dog with my heart in my mouth or just watching the characters converse, Enslaved had me completely captivated and I felt genuinely upset when it was time to stop playing. I absolutely can not wait to get my hands on the finished product and see what happens next to Trip and Monkey.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is worth being very, very excited for.