Articles by Wootini
Sierra put a demo of its upcoming The Bourne Conspiracy on Xbox LIVE, so I thought I'd take a break from wreaking havoc in Liberty City to try playing as human weapon Jason Bourne for a change. The demo offers up a nice sampling of the different gameplay elements offered in the full game.
The Bourne movies established the action as intensely fast-paced and frenetic. And Sierra did a reasonably impressive job of incorporating that pacing into the game without leaving the player feeling like the game is out of his control. At times the transitions from combat to gunplay to Quick Time events can leave you a little unbalanced, but overall, it's not as bad as I'd feared. The main trick they've given you is a quick press of Y allows you to activate a special sense that shows you on the map where you must go next, and where the enemies are. On-screen, it slows the action and highlights key items, allowing you to plan your next move and giving you the feeling of being a superspy.
For specific impressions of each section of the demo, make the jump!
Fancy a trip back to Middle Earth? Well, the Middle Earth as seen in Peter Jackson's Academy Award-winning film trilogy? Well, Pandemic Studios has just announced the development of The Lord Of The Rings: Conquest, due out in the fall of 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Nintendo DS. (Where's the Wii love?)
Coming from the developer who brought us the Star Wars Battlefront games, Conquest will let players engage the epic battles of the movie trilogy from whichever side they want. So when you're tired of swinging Aragon's sword, you can see how Sauron's staff feels in your hand. Wait, that sounded a little dirty.
"Our Pandemic Studios creative teams have years of expertise bringing giant battlefields to life," says Andrew Goldman , Pandemic Studios co-founder and general manager. "We've always wanted to harness our experience in a fantasy universe with warriors, archers, mages and castle sieges. Of course, there is truly no better fantasy world to recreate than the enormity of 'The Lord of the Rings' realm."
There's a poorly-designed (and in-development) website up, and they're going to premiere some game footage and the first trailer exclusively on Spike TV's GameTrailers TV on Friday, June 20. Oh, and I've put the full press release after the jump if you're really that interested.
Well, I have to say I was a little annoyed that my Wii wasn't lit up until after I'd already turned it on and downloaded the Nintendo Channel. That's when I got the message from Nintendo telling me it was available. Thanks, but the blogosphere beat you to it!
I thought it was very interesting that before launching the channel for the first time, it asks if you want to receive messages about games. Basically commercials. I don't need my Wii glowing blue every time a game company wants to send me an ad, so I opted out of that one. I mean, that's really all this channel amounts to, is a bunch of advertising. However, the second option allows you the choice whether or not to be part of the game rating system. This allows Nintendo to monitor what games you're playing and how long you're playing them. If you're afraid of Big Brother, you can opt out, but Nintendo reminds that as a reward for sharing this information, you'll be allowed to download DS demos. So there's really no choice there at all.
Because the DS demo downloads are easily the best part of this experience. There's a decent selection to start with, but we'll see how often new one pop up and whether they add to the list or replace older ones. I was excited to see Jam Sessions on there, but the demo was curiously underwhelming because it was so limited. I am slightly more intrigued by it, though, so I guess it served its purpose. I also tried the Ninja Gaiden demo, which was very pretty and quite thrilling, however I'm afraid to play the full game for fear of shredding my touch screen!
As with all the Channels, the background music is soothing and surprisingly well done, but this time around the loading noises are a little irritating to me. Luckily the videos load quickly. Not wild about how the first screen is a video they push on you before you can go to the main menu. And for that matter, the main menu isn't laid out as nicely as I would've expected. For once, I was actually a little confused. I do appreciate how the extraneous titles and whatnot on the screen disappear after a time while watching a video, although I wonder if Apple can sue them for using that reflection image thing. Full screen is a nice option, though it didn't always look that terrific. The light blue circles swirling in the background aren't distracting, but the red squares while watching DS videos are. What's up with that?
I only rated one game, but I was surprised that No More Heroes wasn't on my list. I appreciate that they require you to have played a game for more than an hour before you're allowed to offer up your opinion on it, but I'm pretty sure I've played NMH more than a few hours. Ah, whatever, it wouldn't have been a glowing review anyway!
Oh, and make sure to check out the Ghost Squad: Dress To Impress trailer. The game is just another on-rails shooter that doesn't impress, but oh man, is that commercial full of cheesy goodness!
In a revelation that will surprise exactly... um, no one, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV broke entertainment sales records. In its first week, it sold about 6 million units, which totals around $500 million in sales. Jinkies! And what's even crazier than that? The game sold 3.6 million of those units on opening day to earn $310 million globally.
"We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player's experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two.
And while there's no equivalent US press release, apparently over in the UK, the Xbox 360 version is outselling the PlayStation 3 version by 20%. I've read around the interwebs that Microsoft is trying to pull the same claim here, but without definitive sales numbers to back it up. I'll let you know if I find any, though!
Xbox LIVE's very own Major Nelson posted on his blog a note that MTV Games and Harmonix have joined forces with McDonalds (?!) to drop the price on selected Rock Band tracks in the US and Canada. Each week until June 1, two tracks will be on sale for just 80 points each. Here's the upcoming schedule:
5/6-12/08:
"Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore
"Rock 'n Roll Band" by Boston
5/13-19/08:
"Shockwave" by Black Tide
"Sugar Magnolia" by the Grateful Dead
5/20-26/08
"We Care A Lot" by Faith No More
"All The Small Things" by Blink 182
5/27-6/2/08:
"Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Dirty Little Secrets" by All-American Rejects
I can tell you that "Crushcrushcrush" is an awesome song, although I recall it being at the discounted 80 points when I first bought it a while back. I've already got the few that I like already, but I might be tempted to get the Blink 182 track during that week...
Are you sick of reading about Grand Theft Auto IV yet? Well, if you're as into the game right now as I am, you might be interested in reading about this, at the very least. I started looking for maps of Liberty City to find out the locations of the pigeons, because I kept hearing one in a certain area and wasn't able to spot it, so I wanted to see if there actually was one there of if I was just going a little insane from GTA overload. But then I realized that what I really needed was a renewable source of body armor so my tendency to run in guns blazing wouldn't get me killed all the time. So in browsing the interwebs for GTA walkthroughs and maps, I found this fantastic resource hosted by IGN. It's a work in progress right now, but it's really useful. There's a whole wiki with information about missions and characters and whatnot, but the best part is the Google map of Liberty City. You can activate whatever types of locations you're interested in, like weapons, shops, health, etc, and then zoom in or out and around the map to see where everything is. Clicking on an item gives you detailed information on where exactly the item is, and how to get to it if it's in a hard-to-reach spot. And with gamers from all over constantly sending in new information, it's only going to get more and more useful!
(Oh, and the easiest-to-grab body armor I found in Broker was in the back of a rusted-out truck in a junkyard just off Mohegan Ave. Just FYI...)
Careful, I'll make the jokes here! The next chapter of Capcom's Rocketmen: Axis of Evil will be available through Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network Store beginning Wednesday, May 14 and Thursday, May 15, respectively. For 400 points on XBLA or $4.95 on PSN, fans of the series can enjoy the expansion pack entitled Rocketmen: It Came From Your Uranus. Yeah, I know the artwork above says "It Came From Uranus," But the press release says "Your Uranus," and isn't that a whole lot funnier? In addition to new maps and enemies that you can enjoy using your existing characters, there are some new weapons created for hte expansion like the Blobber, which shoots blobs of goo at enemies and does damage over time, and the Falcon, a robotic falcon that attacks enemies automatically for you!
Okay, okay, bear with me... I know you're all sick of reading about GTA IV... at least as sick as I am about writing about it. (I'd much rather be playing it!) But "America's Finest News Source," The Onion, had a little "Infographic" about the new release, listing some of GTA IV's "new features." You know, stuff like, "Every other mission is to kill a congressman who condemned the game's three previous versions." Click here to read the full list!
Oh, and someone at the humor publication must be into games, because in the same issue, there's a "News In Brief" article about Colonel Hoffman, Marcus Fenix, and Dominic Santiago being found innocent of war crimes against the Locust Horde. You can click here to read that one! Clever stuff!
You know, I'm getting a little annoyed with the constant re-releasing of titles with additional content months down the line. Especially when it's for another platform (Mass Effect, I'm looking at you!). But if you missed out on Lost Planet the first time around, Capcom is releasing Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition (what a mouthful!) on May 27 for the Xbox 360 and PC. There's new content and new online modes, maps and models. And PC and 360 players can compete cross-platform online! And judging from that pic above, one of the new character models is zombie hunting Frank West... in his shorty shorts!
I've got a gallery of screenshots and a full list of the key features after the jump!
Nintendo today announced a partnership with Westin Hotels & Resorts that will put special editions of their Wii console in hotels across the US. This is all part of Westin hotel's WestinWORKOUT program that aims to get their guests' bodies and minds in shape. So these special Wii consoles come pre-loaded with games like Wii Sports, Big Brain Academy, Wii Play and others. They're also going to get Wii Fit with Balance Boards when that launches.
"We jumped at the chance to be the first hotel to partner with Nintendo and add interactive entertainment to our successful WestinWORKOUT program," said Sue Brush, Senior Vice President, Westin Hotels & Resorts. "We think our guests will be eager to make Wii a part of their workouts during their stay with us."
"Delivering an active entertainment experience is what Wii is all about," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Games like Wii Sports and the upcoming Wii Fit are ideal for business travelers and families who want to stay energized while on the road."
The program launches with Wii's in 10 hotels across the US, and eight more joining in May. Honestly, I figure that a hotel's gym would give you a better workout, but then again, playing Wii Sports for 30 minutes is certainly a whole lot more fun than grinding away on a treadmill for the same amount of time!
So are you one of those people who have a PC, but not an Xbox 360, and were thrilled to learn that the most awesome Mass Effect would be coming to Windows? But then a little annoyed that you had to wait so long for the port? Well, EA feels your pain, and is offering a $10 discount on all pre-orders of the title, due out May 27 in the US and June 6 in the UK.
All you have to do to get the $10 discount is pre-order at participating retailers like GameStop, Amazon.com and GoGamer.com. And if you prefer free stuff over free money (?!), then you could also pre-order Mass Effect directly from EA's online store, which will net you a couple bonus items from their upcoming sci-fi survival horror title Dead Space: the first issue of the Dead Space comic book, and a poster. While supplies last, naturally.
See, sometimes good things do come to those who wait (or don't own a 360). New HUD, better resolution graphics, an improved inventory system (the only one I'm truly jealous of), and now a $10 discount!
Are you a huge fan of racing videogames? Do you have $349.99 burning a hole in your pocket? Oh, and do you have either a PC or a PS3? (Sorry 360 owners — you're out of luck!) Well, then scope out this high-end Porsche 911Turbo Racing Wheel.
Fully licensed by Porsche, the wheel offers latency-free wireless USB technology, three force feedback motors and smoodth belt drive, a 6+1 H-pattern gear stick with realistic shifting feel and authentic wireless pedals with realistic clutch. Oh, and the wheel itself is covered in rich, Corinthian leather. Okay, really not. But it is covered with fine, automotive grade leather. A tuning display allows gamers to change settings during gameplay and a 1GB USB flash drive stores the driver and manual in the shape of a Porsche key.
"It took us seven years to get the Porsche license and their one major condition was that we develop the best wheel out there," said Thomas Jackermeier, CEO of Endor AG, the parent company of wheel creator Fanatec. "It was a big challenge for us and it took an enormous effort but we now know that it was worth it!"
According to the press release, the wheel works with games like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Racedriver: GRID, rFactor and others. You can get more information on the wheel at www.911wheel.com, and starting in early May 2008, the wheel will be sold exclusively at www.FANATEC.com. So start saving those pennies now, boys! (Honestly, if I was a huge racing game fan, this sounds like it would be totally awesome... if it didn't cost as much as a console itself!)
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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