Remember Project Natal, Microsoft’s answer to the Nintendo Wii that’s 5 years too late? Well, flexing their good marketing sense the series of cameras has been renamed from something pronounced incorrectly to something that is spelled incorrectly. It’s called Kinect, as in it connects and has you move around (kinetic energy being motion-based, you see). I had a series of mad-capped adventure this morning, so here’s just one big pile of info on the “dance like an omniscient robot isn’t watching” device due out this November.
That’s right, the prequel to the sequel that’s technically coming out before the true sequel debuts… which kind of makes this the sequel to Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 the sequel to Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. The game will run on the Dead Rising 2 engine… or maybe Dead Rising 2 runs on the Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. Really, this is such an odd idea. Did Rockstar Table Tennis end up coming out on GTA4‘s Rage engine? Anyway…
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is a “prequel” to Dead Rising 2 that is meant to bridge the gap between the original and the sequel. It takes place in Still Creek wherein Chuck Greene tries to save his daughter from the rampaging zombie hoards. And if zombies weren’t bad enough they’ve got Psychos running around too. This segment takes place 2 years after the original in the timeline but still 3 years before the sequel. This seems like a great time to introduce a new feature, video game math!
Dire situation + Father trying to protect his daughter + Zombie Apocalypse + Daughter not in the sequel + Promise from developer to “bridge the gap” between games = That girl is dying
SPOILERS!
Case Zero will cost…something and be available… sometime. So, there you go, something exists, it will contain gameplay, possibly. Coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 (until it’s announced as DLC or is packed into the PS3 “collector’s edition”)
Every year Capcom holds a press-only event called Captivate. In Hawaii. As you can imagine, that sort of expense is a bit out of our pay-grade. Some sites do get to go but choose not to, other show up and get exclusive info on huge upcoming game releases. We stay home and cover it all 10 hours later, then spend the money we saved on airfare to fill a bathtub with jell-o. I’ll let your imagination fill in what happens next.
PlanetXbox360 did attend Captivate this year and is reporting that Marvel vs Capcom 3 is confirmed for Xbox 360 and will be available either late 2010 or early 2011. Characters slated to return are Spiderman, Wolverine, The Hulk, Magneto and Storm. The roster sound like it will be significantly larger than previous entries in the series since, “the team behind MvC3 have said they will be blowing fans out of the water with the sheer number of characters this game includes on the disc.” If this article is to be believed MvC3 will be a full retail game in the style of Street Fighter IV but with similar graphical sensibilities as the other MvC games. Official announcement by Capcom, along with screenshots and video, is said to be forthcoming.
I think it goes without saying but take this all with a grain of salt. People have been talking about a sequel to Marvel vs Capcom 2 since before I graduated middle school. Then again, those kids at the back of the school bus also talked a lot about how the Alien vs. Predator movies and the Mortal Kombat vs DC game were also coming. I guess it’s just time to wait and see.
Gather ’round children, let me tell you a story, a story of betrayal and sadness. Last week, on April 8th actually, Cliff Bleszinski, known more frequently as CliffyB, appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. There he was met with great fanfare and aplomb, all as a means to hype up his most recent project and inevitable conclusion, Gears of War 3. The interview starts talking about Cliff himself, his time as a child making his first game when he was only 11 and his first financially viable game at 17.
The interview takes a serious turn though when Cliffy gets to reveal “The worst kept secret in Video Games”, namely Gears of War 3. The lights go down and we the audience are treated with the first trailer, a dark and moody piece featuring Dom and Marcus (as well as a female COG), fighting off Cera’s newest threat, the Lambent. The trailer is called “Ashes to Ashes” and scattered through the front-lines are bodies reduces to ash in a scene reminiscent of Pompeii. Lights come up, lots of clapping, and Mr. Bleszinski gets to announce to national television that the game will be coming out in one year to the day.
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So the Super-Elite has been unleashed. Previously unconfirmed speculation about the existence of an incredibly large and as far as I can tell useless hard drive have finally been confirmed. Don’t get me wrong, there are ways to fill up a 120GB hard drive but as far as I can tell unless you’re either too busy for some simple data management or are actually trying desperately to do so then it’s not an issue. I meditated with a laser-focus on the whole idea and just couldn’t imagine the use. My mind reeled, “maybe if you bought every Rock Band and Guitar Hero song… not enough.” I just don’t know.
Demo impressions are useless, play the demo. I’ve decided instead to tell you more about the Girl. I have a fantastic woman in my life. Most nerds are happy with any woman, maybe I would be to, but luckily I have an amazing woman who likes me for some indiscernible reason. She has a lot of very good qualities and many of the qualities she lacks I have in spades. We’re a great team and more then that we know it enough to use our differences to our advantage. For instance, I can read a map very well. She makes knows how to encourage me. I encourage too but since everything I say sounds like a lie or a backhanded compliment I think she does a better job at it then I do.
All of this pails in comparison to what she did this morning. At PAX she pre-ordered Brutal Legend for me, a very sweet thing to do already. Then, since she’s Allison and everything good happens to her, she won the limited edition 17 inch Eddie Riggs statue. That will be in my apartment near the end of the month, but it wont be mine officially. I can handle that. No, what happened this morning what selfless. She received an email giving her the code for early entrance into the Brutal Legend demo and gave it to me without second thought. I opened by saying we have complimentary weaknesses, Brutal Legend is my weakness. I would not have been able to do the same thing, had our roles been reversed.
I will be playing the demo today until I can’t anymore. Don’t talk to me, I’m not interested. Unless of course if you’re the Girl, then I have all the time in the world. All of this was written in the time it took my Xbox to download the demo. Bye.
The new trailer for Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum looks, and I say this understanding the full implications of my words, Bat-tastic! Creepy Joker holding the city hostage from Arkham, Meanwhile the player as Batman is tasked with sneaking in and taking him down without being seen. Cue high tech super-sight, grappling hook combat, and the World’s greatest Detective knocking skulls. A question from those not in the know (i.e. me), why is Batman sneaking back into Arkham, wasn’t he the one escorted the Joker in there in the debut trailer? Just a thought. Anyway, someone get me a release day so I can start marking off the days.
Source [thanks Steven]
Phrases and references I am honor-bound to use in this story-
- Pugilist
- Sweet Science
- “Iron” Mike
- Ear-biting
- Cassius related pun
- Punch-Out!!!
You read the title right, the two preeminent pugilists of that sweet science we call professional boxing, “Iron” Mike Tyson and Muhammad “never featured in Punch-Out!!” Ali are headed into a ear-biting conflict of Cassius-clysmic proportions (natch!). Fight Night Round 4 will be the first game of the series to feature both legendary (or in the case of Tyson, infamous), fighters in the same game, let alone on the cover.
Too much heavyweight history for you to stand? Well if this is your cup of tea (maybe not the most macho of phrases), then put your pre-order down at GameStop now and receive early access to the games demo. Just enough time for Ali to hit you, oh I don’t know, a billion times!
This cover does once again rekindle the ever-present debate. A question usually reserved for comic book nerds and sports historians, I ask you, who would win in a fight? Full cover after the break.
As I’ve already tried to convince you, Quake Live is right now open and willing to let you play it. I tried it earlier today and let me just say if nostalgia were a fish, Quake Live is my Whale Shark.
So what else is new for id? For one, the teased and then dropped Quake III Arena port for XBLA is finally close to coming to fruition. Pi Studios has apparently been hard at work retouching things here and there, adding “new character skins”, and some (I hope minor), “gameplay changes”. All I want is Anarki and a Rocket Launcher, I can take it from there.
Sure does look like it. There is a pro-tip given to you early on in TimeShift where the developer straight up tells you that rewinding time wont give you back your bullets. Why not? Unlimited ammo too awesome a power for any one video game character? No one tell Lara Croft.
Raven Software has really outdid itself this time. Be it uncrushing a barrel to use as a bomb (it had something in it at one point), throwing corpses gravity gun style into the sky, or even aging people to death Singularity looks polished and creepy. My favorite scene in the trailer is hands down when the main character ages the supports for a huge steel container causing it to crush the enemies below.
My hope is that Singularity doesn’t fall into the same trap TimeShift and other generic action titles sometimes tend to where in the sci fi/fantasy twist becomes a gimmick.
what they’re saying