I know, I'm a few days late with this week's Xbox indie review roundup, but not without good reason. Not only were there a ton of indie games this week to go through (35!) but I also had to figure out how to make this new fangled HD video capture card work properly with my PC. I think the effort was worth it though, since you can actually read text in the video now and it's no longer a blurry mess of eyestrain like my previous videos. Hopefully you think it's worth it too. Oh, and do you like the new layout? You can thank our good friend Gerlad over at Indie Nerds for that, whose Photoshop-fu is much stronger than mine.
Anyway, you didn't come to hear me ramble about all of that, you came for indie game reviews. In the video above we've got six reviews, three lovely ones and three that fall in the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" category. Then even more reviews await after the jump for those of you who still enjoy the written word.
Okay, this is kind of weird, but you know how Capcom loves playing mix-and-match! Apparently, Monster Hunter Frontier in Japan for PC and Xbox 360 is getting some Dead Rising 2 in-game items. So now you can go monster hunting with boxing gloves with knives duct taped to them, a moose head or a boomstick. And four colored variations on the racing suit, too! Tokens for the times will be included in copies of the soon-to-be-released Dead Rising 2 for the Xbox 360 or PC. Unfortunately, this is Japan-only right now, seeing as the Monster Hunter MMO is only available over there. It's still pretty cool, though!
You've Got Dead Rising 2 In My Monster Hunter [Capcom Unity]
If you're like me, you're eagerly awaiting the release of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future on September 12. But if you're also like me, and live in New York City, you're out of luck with participating in the unique launch event Nintendo is scheduling to promote the new DS title. On the other hand, if you reside in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston or Philadelphia, then you're in like Flynn!
Professor Layton wants to know who's better at solving brainteasers — men or women, and is traveling to those four cities to find out. So if you live near any of these locations, step up and represent for your gender. (And get a chance to play the game before its release!) The schedule is as follows:
September 7: San Francisco's Union Square
September 8: Chicago's Grant Park
September 9: Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace
September 10: Philadelphia's Fairmount Park at JFK Plaza/LOVE Park
The event will be taking place from 11am to 6pm each day, and all you have to do is look for the red British phone booths. For a more detailed description of each location, just click here to check out the website for the challenge. Good luck! And may the best man (or woman) win!
Attention Final Fantasy XIV beta testers - I've just heard from our inside source that the Final Fantasy XIV open beta, scheduled to begin at 7pm PDT today, will be postponed until tomorrow. Moreover, previous beta testers will now need to acquire a new key for the open beta.
Square's official word on the situation:
Acquisition of Registration Code for the Open Beta Test
We have an important announcement to the testers who have participated in FINAL FANTASY XIV Closed Beta Test.
Between 19:00 and 19:50 (PDT) on Sep. 1, 2010, an incorrect notice saying "Participants of closed beta test do not need to obtain new registration code for the open beta test." was being made on FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Application Site.
Participants of closed beta test also need to obtain and register dedicated registration code for the open beta test. Please follow the directions listed in the mail "Guide to the FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test," which was sent to the participants of closed beta test on Aug. 31, 2010, and obtain the registration code from FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Application Site.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Though you won't hear this from Square, I hear that a snafu occurred while updating the back end of the Square Enix account management system that rendered every current or previous beta access key invalid and is preventing the issuing of new beta keys for the open beta, already delayed from its intended launch on September 1.
More publicly, eager beta testers overwhelmed the beta test site, rendering it inaccessible to most - Square has now temporarily stopped accepting beta applications. Our insider expects the process to resume more smoothly sometime tomorrow. Follow the Twitter feed for the North American beta test for word of a fix.
The fine folks at Valve are planning some presents for you, but won't let you in on the secrets quite yet. Gabe Newell recently had an in-depth interview with Tim Ingham of PC Gamer UK, and while the full details are set between the glossy pages of that publication, they have seen fit to tease us internet-goers with a few tips.
One of the most torturous quotes from Gabe is how much he's not telling us:
"I can guarantee you people are going to be surprised at stuff we do. That isn't going to stop any time soon. I'm just laughing because... people will be shocked again. We have three pretty big surprises in the next 12 months at least."
It's hard to not to translate 'Valve surprise' into '
Half-Life 3', but even so, that would only account for one of the juicy fruits Mr. Newell is so cruelly dangling out of sight. Is it a proper
Half-Life/Portal crossover?
Team Fortress 3? Or a strange new way of playing with advanced technology?
In a separate part of the interview, Gabe offers a peek into some of the interesting tech on which Valve has spent some of the vast wealth it's obtained by having crazy sales every month. One of the things that sets Half-Life well beyond other shooters is the care put into its storytelling and emotional moments. Not once is the player taken out of the eyes of Gordon Freeman to watch a cutscene or read an objective screen: Valve's sense of timing and placement allow the entire story to play it in what the player witnesses and hears through key characters. For years, we've known about the complicated telemetrics that show where and how players tend to make their way through any given map - couple that with many, many hours of testing, and it's easy to see why the folks at Valve are definitive when it comes to the single-player FPS.
Even with how much data they currently collect, Valve is about to raise the bar for how far inside players' heads they can get. They've invested in biometrics setups, which can use gaze tracking, pulse rate, and other indicators to get a solid read on a player's attention and stress-level. This has lead to even better understanding of how to create experiences in a first-person game that resonate, as well as gleaning what Gabe calls "surprising side-effects." In a competitive game, for example, seeing your opponent's pulse-rate go up is actually quite rewarding, while knowing that one of your co-op buddies in Left 4 Dead is sweating makes that experience even more intense.
Could it be that one of the surprises Valve has in store for us is keen use of the Wii Vitality Sensor? What do you think, readers? Is gaming biometrics the future for developers, and will Valve actually get three surprises out in what most of us consider a calendar year?
UPDATE: The user in question has received an e-mail response from Xbox support and they have removed his suspension as the term in common in Germany. Good to hear they have fixed this issue so quickly.
I thought this issue was settled once and for all, but apparently not. A German gamer going by the forum name Schmoo found his account suspended under the Xbox Live Terms of Service for having the following line in his bio.
Ich bin ein homosexueller Mann in einer großen schlechten Stadt. Ich mag kleine Kuchen und Cheeseburgers.
Which translates into English as 'I am a gay man in a big bad city. I like cupcakes and cheeseburgers'.
Xbox support, when called, first explained to him incorrectly that he was not allowed to put his sexual preference in his profile, and was eventually told by higher managers his profile was sexually explicit and would stay suspended. Xbox Terms of Service states that words allowed are "Lesbian", "Gay", "Bi", "Transgender" and "Straight". "Other terms regarding relationship orientation are not allowed,"
The catch here, is that as far as I can tell, there isn't an exact translation of the word gay in the German language. The closest I can find is 'schwul' which can also mean 'humid or muggy' when there is an umlaut over the vowel. (any of our readers who know German, please confirm for us)
So, do we need to now ask Xbox for a list of approved foreign language words that can be used to describe sexuality? And more importantly, why are there still Xbox Live customer support reps who are so woefully misinformed about the change in policy? We'll keep you updated on the story as it develops.
Suspended for being openly gay., Once again, Microsoft's unjust hammer strikes. [Gaymer.org Forums]
[via: The Consumerist]
First. Before this summer, I had never played a Metroid game to completion, and since May, I have worked my way through the series chronologically. The perspective you are getting is not from a long-time fan, but someone who has come to love the series regardless.
Like many others who voiced concerns on the internet, I walked into Metroid: Other M wary, but willing to open my mind. What I found was a mixed bag that still has me contemplating what to make of it all (and very happy we've adopted a policy of not adding scores, as I would have no idea where I'd place this).
First, yes, Samus speaks. Unfortunately, what she has to say leans more of the telling side, rather than showing, as the series has mostly been known for in its past. This leads to lengthy cutscenes where Samus will summarize all that's been happening--in case your attention span is short. This is only hampered by the fact that the writing is rather abysmal, whatever direction they gave the voice actress (Jessica Martin) made her sound bored, and in general, the voice acting was fairly meh. At one point, Adam Malkovich goes into detail why Power Bombs are not to be used, and goes into lengthy detail about its effects on humans, but in many more words. Melodramatic might be the appropriate term.
Which is unfortunate when I consider what else was beneath the surface. While the entire plot is not necessarily to my taste (again, melodramatic and schmaltzy at times, with moments that were purely designed to grab at my emotions but often left me staring at the screen with a blank face), there were some interesting ideas buried there. This story was to focus on Samus's past, and this included her brash youth. While mention is made of her leaving the Galactic Federation out of anger about the way she was treated as the only female, that isn't explored so much as the father issues. I had somewhat grown accustomed to Samus interacting with other humans in Metroid Prime 3, but I was not wholly prepared for the level of intimacy that was suddenly portrayed.
Read on for the interactive sections of the game.
You have to give the adventure game masters at Telltale Games credit where credit is due. I realize that not everyone has undying love for characters like Sam, Max, and Guybrush like I do, but who doesn't like Marty and Doc Brown? Since their announcement of a Back To The Future adventure series, fans have been on the edge of their seat wondering how it's going to look, sound, and come together in the end. Today we get a tantalizing tease through a rather nice piece of concept art (seen to the right) and learn a few other juicy details from USA Today's Game Hunters.
The article explains that fans of the time traveling movie series are in for a treat with Bob Gale, the original screenplay writer for all three films, already working directly with Telltale Games. Christopher Lloyd will be reprise the role of Doc with his signature voice. While no specific plot points have been given out yet, the article does confirm that it will take course of a five episode season, the iconic DeLorean will be featured again, and Hill Valley is just one of the settings players will explore.
I think the team really nailed the art style for the characters and hearing that some of the most important figures from the film series' history will be involved gets me even more hyped! Check out the full article for yourself at Game Hunters.
[Telltale Games times 'Back to the Future' project] USA Today / Game Hunters
A new trailer for Kirby's Epic Yarn hit Japanese airwaves today, and as expected it's overflowing with more footage of Kirby's adorable new art style.
What's less expected is that there's also some story details explaining why Kirby is suddenly made of yarn in the first place. Apparently it has something to do with Kirby finding a yarn tomato, which turns into a yarn wizard wearing a poncho, who sucks Kirby into a vortex contained in a sock. Or at least that's what I think is going on, if any readers out there understand Japanese and want to chime in then please feel free to do so and thanks to a translation from commenter Βορέας, it looks like I was almost right.
One day, while he was taking a walk, Kirby found a really delicious looking tomato.
"Itadakimasu*", he said and swallowed it.
But suddenly the owner of the tomato appeared.
And Kirby was drawn into the mysterious stocking that the owner was carrying.
There, it was a world where everything was made of yarn.
Then, somehow, even Kirby's body had turned into yarn.
* Japanese expression used before taking a meal.
But even if you don't understand the language, the footage speaks for itself showing new dinosaur-themed levels, new transformations like a dolphin and a firetruck (complete with fire hose and yarn-ified water effects), and a first look at King Dedede's yarn makeover.
Since this is a Japanese trailer, the date at the end is the Japanese release date of October 14. In the US Kirby's Epic Yarn will release a few days later on October 17 and in Europe in early 2011.
When I heard that 505 Games had licensed Grease for videogames, I was super excited to see what they had in store, but upon seeing the games at E3, I was underwhelmed by the Wii version, but intrigued by the DS one. With Elite Beat Agents-style gameplay set to songs like "Hand Jive" and "Greased Lightning," how could it miss? Well, turns out that while Grease for the DS doesn't exactly miss, it ends up falling flat.
There's a Story Mode where you select Danny or Sandy, and play through their side of the storyline song by song. You tap stars in time with the music, rapid-tap large stars that count down from 100, and follow little stars along various shapes like stars, hearts and lines. A Quick Play mode allows you to pick either character (plus Frenchie and Rizzo), customize their outfits and play a song of your choice. But that's about it. And Story Mode doesn't even last for half of the movie. They clearly tried to add some extra value with the Lyrics & Music and Dance Steps Modes, but that's not gameplay, and is ultimately useless. It's no fun singing along to the songs without being scored, and learning choreography on the DS is just weird. There's also a multiplayer mode, but while it's nice only one game card is required, allowing you a choice of character but not song ("Greased Lightning" was automatically selected) is pretty weak.
Though the instruction booklet has some movie stills in it, graphics are cartoony, avoiding any licensing issues with likenesses. The comic book-style still screens before each stage aren't great, but the motion-captured dancing animation is surprisingly good. (There's also a feature where you can use the DSi camera to superimpose your own face onto one of the characters, but it looks really creepy, so the less said about it, the better!) The songs sound great, and while they're covers (again to keep licensing costs down), they're really good covers. The only problem is that there aren't very many of them, and some of them are really heavily censored. Obviously you're going to cut the dirty words out of "Greased Lightning" to keep the ESRB rating low, but they also did a number on "Sandra Dee." Censoring "cigarette" is borderline, but deleting "bed" from "Won't go to bed 'til I'm legally wed" seems a bit extreme. All the blank lyrics are kind of distracting and make them sound like hardcore rap songs played on the radio.
Grease on the DS isn't terrible. The songs are awesome, as everyone knows, and the tap and swipe gameplay is fun. But unfortunately, there's really not a lot of game to be had. While difficulty ramps up as the story progresses so that by the time you get to "We Go Together" you might fail out a couple times, the game as a whole isn't that hard. And offering three difficulty levels in Quick Play gives a little bit of replayability, but it's not much. The gimped multiplayer doesn't add much, either. I was able to unlock Frenchie and "Beauty School Dropout," but there isn't anything else to find (although I think "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" is in there somewhere...). I don't regret playing Grease, and I will probably go back to it periodically just for a bit of fun, but I'm glad I had a gift card and only paid $5 for it.
Atari and Cryptic Studios are celebrating the first anniversary of their superhero MMO Champions Online with a couple of promotions. First, new players can try the game for free starting today, September 1 until Tuesday, September 7. Just click on over to their website for more details. And during the same time period, all merchandise in the C-store will be 20% off (with the exception of the new "Millennium Costume Set"), so if you try the game and like it, you can get a discount on those Beast Heads or the Serpent Armor for your new hero!
You know the history and the date - now it's time to see what the next chapter of Mass Effect 2 looks like. BioWare's new trailer shows off some impressive cinematic moments, from dodging explosions to an actual air-car chase through the spires of Illium. Liara displays some of her own talents, including a bionic shield for instant cover, as she and Commander Shepard invade the Shadow Broker's secret base to try and get some of that much-promised revenge. Or, as Liara puts it, "Get in, get out. Kill anyone who tries to stop us."
The Lair of the Shadow Broker will be available for download on XBox 360 and PCs next week, on September 7.
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