Today sees the release of Episode One of the [amazon_link id=”B0050SXFKE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed 3[/amazon_link] DLC The Tyranny of King Washington and a new trailer has been released to show exactly how this alternate version of the AC universe began. It is a unique attempt by the series to show America’s greatest leader gone mad with power.
Episode One is titled The Tyranny and is available today, Episode Two (The Betrayal) will be out on March 19th and the final episode (The Redemption) will release on April 23rd.
Damon Baird is back to give you the rundown on all the new goodies to the multiplayer in [amazon_link id=”B002I0H2AG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Gears of War: Judgment[/amazon_link]. The new character classes are explained as well as how multiplayer maps will have more verticality to them.
I am more excited about this Gears multiplayer experience than I was for Gears 3 because it seems that the guys over at People Can Fly are addressing a lot of the issues that fans have wanted changed in past entries. I love the new class system and the addition of new grenades like the beacon grenades that give off a sort of sonar effect allowing you see through walls and the stim grenade which heals anyone near where it goes off. And finally, the ability to quick toss grenades!!! Thank you!!!
You also get a look at the Overrun mode which is like Horde on crack and free for all which I will spend many, many hours on. I am more of a screw teams, let’s just kill each other group.
Irrational has released yet another trailer for [amazon_link id=”B003O6E6NE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Bioshock Infinite[/amazon_link] that focuses on Elizabeth and her powers.
New footage is shown as Booker DeWitt begins to question if he should go through with the deal to bring Elizabeth back from Columbia. The trailer ends with the chilling line that was said in one of the game’s first trailers.
While the release of new music games has pretty much been put six feet under Harmonix has been releasing weekly content to their ever expanding library. Now, it seems, that it can fight no more.
April 2nd will be the last week of content release for the Rock Band store bringing to an end an impressive five year run that saw the release of over 4,000 songs over 275 consecutive weeks. They are currently having a sale on over 1,100 songs at 50% off so people can keep filling out their Rock Band libraries.
The company released a small statement on the Rock Band forums:
“We hope that you’ll all agree that this has been a tremendous run, and you should know it’s a ride that we at Harmonix have been thrilled to be a part of. We’re going to continue to support the forums and RockBand.com and hope to still see you rocking out online, in photos of Rock Band parties shared on Twitter and Facebook, or here on the forums. Whether you waited in line for a midnight release of Rock Band over 5 years ago, or you just joined the party with Rock Band Blitz… whether you’ve downloaded every single song we’ve ever released, or you’ve just played on disc songs until your neighbors moved away… whether you’re a metal shredder, or a bubblegum pop singer… thank you for being a part of our band.”
Legendary film composer John Williams has thrown his hat in the ring and gone on record saying he would like to work on the next set of Star Wars films. He said this found on jwfan.com:
“We’re about to play Star Wars [audience interrupts with cheers] and each time we play it, I’m reminded of the first time we played it decades ago. Neither I, nor George, nor anyone else involved thought this would go far or in a few years there would be a sequel and I’d have to revisit the themes…and years later another trilogy. Now we’re hearing of a new set of movies coming in 2015, 2016…so I need to make sure I’m still ready to go in a few years for what I hope would be continued work with George…[more cheers].”
I hope by continued work with George he meant Disney and J.J. Abrams since George Lucas is probably at most going to be an advisor on the next set of films. We all know Abrams is a huge Star Wars fan and getting John Williams would seem like a no brainer, but let’s not also forget his relationship with composer Michael Giacchino who has worked with Abrams on Alias, Lost, Fringe and 2009’s Star Trek. He also won an Oscar for his score of Disney’s Up. Fanboys would cry bloody murder, but I am pretty sure they would get over it. And who’s to say that having some new blood wouldn’t yield greater returns?
This past weekend Bungie, the creators of Halo, finally took the covers off of their next project, Journey. Ambitious does not begin to describe what Destiny is. Not only is this the company’s first game outside the safety of Microsoft’s umbrella, but it is an entire series of games that will involve a brand new universe and occupy the developers next ten years. Ten years!!
When they struck a deal with Activision to publish the game the documents revealed showed that Destiny is being made already sequel ready and the first game will release this fall on Xbox 360 and PS3 and also, presumably, for the next gen consoles as well. Every sequel after will be released strictly for the next generation.
Destiny’s plot revolves around the last portion of humanity to survive an apocalyptic event. The only piece of humanity left were saved when a mysterious ship, known as The Traveler, began to float above a section of Earth. It is always there, hanging as a somber protector for what reason no one knows. Humanity has put the pieces back together under The Traveler and begun to explore the galaxy again. With this comes new threats in the form of alien life that is looking to finish off the remnants of humanity. Destiny will see you play as a guardian, tasked to push back these forces and protect humanity.
Bungie is coining a new term for Destiny’s gameplay, the “shared world shooter”. Not wanting to call the game a true MMO, Destiny will be available to play completely in single player, or at any time, you can join some friends or strangers and help out in missions they are doing and decide to stick together or go do your own thing with your story. How this will work cross-platform remains to be seen. Will it be only 360 players that can match up with 360 players and vice versa or will Bungie somehow work there magic and have all consoles playing on Destiny’s world in one big sci-fi love fest?
Watching the video above also shows off that social integration will play a big part in Destiny. While the specifics are not known as to what will be the basis of the app, it would be easy to assume you would get story updates as well as messages from friends as they interact in the world. You may be able to set up party missions but that is just pure speculation on my part.
Photo courtesy dorksden.com
It looks as though you will not be stuck on Earth in Destiny. You will have the ability to go to other planets, but it is not known if the space travel will be able to be controlled or if Destiny will have space battles. Even if the first game does not, it would not surprise me to see them added in sequels, especially with the horsepower of the next-gen consoles.
This is just the opening salvo of Destiny from Bungie. Expect to see a lot more from now until its planned fall release. I would expect a massive blowout at E3 this year to truly give gamers a sense of the scale of this project.
With the Sony Playstation event coming up on Wednesday where the Playstation 4 is expected to be unveiled the rumor bin is in full overdrive. The newest one comes from The Wall Street Journal that reports that Sony will offer streaming games over their new system.
‘The new technology, to be unveiled Wednesday along with the new console, will allow users to play games delivered over the Internet, these people said. The streaming service, they added, is designed to use current PlayStation 3 titles on the new console; the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs.”
This rumor should probably be filed under the section “completely likely to happen”. Sony spent $380 million dollars last year purchasing the streaming service Gaikai and I am pretty sure it wasn’t just to have no use of it.
Mortal Kombat Legacy was a big success in 2011 for director Kevin Tancharoen. Big enough that Warner Bros. not only gave him a chance for a second season of the show but also the directing job for a new Mortal Kombat feature film. Now Season 2 of Mortal Kombat Legacy is almost upon us and here is the first trailer.
A lot of new additions have been made for Season 2 both in characters and actors. Ermac, Stryker and more will be joining the series and some roles will be filled by new actors most notably Johnny Rico himself Casper Van Dien as Johnny Cage and Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa reprising his role of Shang Tsung from the first Mortal Kombat film.
There will be ten episodes of Mortal Kombat Legacy Season 2 and each will average around eight minutes in length. The series can be seen on Machinima.com.
If you are evenly vaguely aware of popular culture, you’ve probably noticed that zombies are kind of a “thing” right now. You may have even heard someone talk about “The Walking Dead,” in reference to Robert Kirkman’s long-running comic published by Image; or maybe – and more likely – they meant AMC’s television adaptation of the series; or – if the someone is especially awesome – they are talking about Telltale Games’ episodic adventure series that ties in with both. Even if you hadn’t heard of it before Spike’s VGAs this year, it probably would have caught your attention when it beat a field of triple-A titles for Game of the Year.
I was certainly surprised. Since the episodes had begun in May ’12, I had purchased three of them and completed two, so I knew the game was high-quality. Still, we’re talking about an episodic adventure series that some have claimed is little more than a point-and-click progression of choose-your-own-adventure interactive cutscenes. This, at the absolute core of the game – and especially highlighted during its weakest moments – is exactly what is going on. Luckily for anyone who has played it, though, those weak moments are few and scattered throughout the most player-driven experience I may have ever had. That’s because from the very first moments of the game, the content of the aforementioned cutscenes is based almost 100% on player decisions. The system is constantly keeping track of everything you do and say, and is using that to build an experience that is exceptionally unique.
Starved For Help
I’m getting ahead of myself, though. In such a story-driven experience, I would be remiss not to talk about the story: When the game begins, your player character Lee is in the back of a police cruiser being taken to jail. An accident occurs, and by the time you wake up, the zombie outbreak is in full effect. You make your way into a neighborhood, where your life is saved by a young girl named Clementine. The two of you team up, and you eventually make your way to a location taken straight from the comics and meet some of the people who will join you on your journey.
I am being vague about things like why you were going to jail, why and where you are going with Clementine, where you meet the other characters, etc. for two reasons: Spoilers would be a massive disservice to the game, and more significantly, the answers I would give are based on my playthrough, and might not be relevant to yours. Yes, I am telling you that information as specific as “were you actually guilty of a crime” is completely up to the person you want Lee to be.
That being said, Lee is his own person, something which has more weight to it the further you progress into the episodes. While it is true that almost everything he says comes verbatim from dialogue choices, some little things like personality quirks, facial tics and body language cues are all his own. It creates an interesting dichotomy the likes of which I’ve only ever experienced in the connect / disconnect between myself and my version of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect.
Courtesy of venturebeat.com
Long Road Ahead
The end result is unique: I had times when my decisions made sense as both a player and a character, and times when I had Lee do something in-character that was totally against what I thought as a player; those times tended to deal with the survival of Lee and the others in the group. As a player, sitting safe and warm and well-fed on my couch, I can think “This is wrong, I don’t want to do this,” and still have to make the call that Lee would make in that situation. The game really shines in these instances, and juxtaposes them with moments of tension, horror, and action where I felt 100% in Lee’s shoes as he (I)(we) tried to run from a horde or fend off a walker with his (my)(our) bare hands.
The game also excels at developing the secondary and even tertiary characters, especially considering how much of their development is tied directly to the choice structure. Again without spoiling too much, not only are there characters that can live or die based on your choices, but some of those characters make choices based on your choices that can then change whole plotlines. Not only does this give the player an amazing feeling of involvement, it means that Telltale was committed enough to this mechanic that they created content that players might never see. Considering that it’s not a large studio, an investment of time and money on unseen content is nothing to overlook.
What content you will see looks and sounds amazing, and I have to give credit to the artists who worked on this title. The cel-shading was a stroke of genius, and really gives you the feeling of being inside the comic; at the same time, it never looks “cartoony,” and the moments of violence are every bit as gut-wrenching as they should be. The characters are exceptionally expressive, and the voice actors sell me on their roles in almost every case. I experienced a few minor hiccoughs like items disappearing from a characters hand now and then, but it didn’t last long and never affected gameplay.
The choice mechanic itself is exceptionally well-implemented into gameplay, whether it was during dialogue or as part of an action sequence. If you’re in a free-roam area and initiate a conversation, there’s no pressure in weighing different responses; during time-sensitive sequences, though, there is a bar under the dialogue that quickly drains while you try to respond. During action moments, the bar is replaced by a red tint that gets darker the longer you take to respond, usually by pointing the cursor at something and hitting the action button. These bits are generally pretty tense, and the need to take action occasionally leads to split-second choices concerning who lives and who dies.
Courtesy of wikipedia.org
Around Every Corner
Unfortunately, those sequences also highlight one of my two big gripes with the game, which is that this game is so PC-developed-then-ported-to-consoles it hurts; sometimes it hurts so hard that Lee and others die. I’ve been using analog sticks to point at things for a long time, and it still felt like the cursory was just too… heavy is the right word, I think. Ten game also had a strange tendency to start the cursor – which is supposed to represent where Lee is looking – in the part of the screen furthest from what you need to do. I don’t know about you, but if I’m being attacked by a walker, I’m going to be looking at the walker, not off into the corner.
My other big complaint is that the item-specific adventuring has the ability to slow and even destroy the pacing, which is an issue in a game where you’re supposed to be surviving a zombie apocalypse. I’ll openly admit that I used a FAQ a few times, and felt justified when the answers were “look in this one very specific spot in a very specific way for this very specific item.” The third episode in particular dragged so badly I had to stop playing and pick it up the next day.
These little things didn’t keep the overall experience from being phenomenal, though. I was especially lucky in having an audience for the game in the form of my girlfriend; while she didn’t use the controller, we “played” the entire story together, with her keeping an eye out for items, helping with puzzles, and weighing in on decisions. I was genuinely happy about this, considering she probably won’t ever read the comic or watch the show given her natural aversion to gore. In this case, though, her shock and horror just contributed to my own; she was also my conscience, and openly disagreed with a few things I did. One particular decision at the end of episode four got to her so much that she wouldn’t say anything to me other than “You lied to Clementine. You lied to her.”
No Time Left
Courtesy of wikipedia.org
Near the end of The Walking Dead, an antagonist confronts Lee with a laundry list of things he – and by extension, you – has done that makes him / you a “monster.” Actions like stealing food, abandoning other survivors, and even a few outright murders from over the course of the game’s five episodes are thrown at you interrogation style. During this scene, the dialogue options “You don’t know the whole story,” “There wasn’t any other choice,” and “I wish I had done that differently” sounded just as hollow and desperate coming from Lee as I felt telling him to say them.
Because we did have choices, in every one of those situations and a dozen others leading up to them; and while we had tried so very hard to do the right thing, we made mistakes and people died. The only thing stopping us from giving up right then and there was an eight-year-old girl in a dirty hoodie and a tattered ball cap. Everything Lee and I had done up to that point had been to keep “sweet pea” safe, and so long as that was seen through, I could live with the rest. If I can speak for a certain history teacher turned escaped convict turned makeshift dad from Macon, Georgia, I think he would agree.
NERD RATING – 9.0/10
Editor’s Note – I played the game on the XBox 360 as downloadable episodes. It’s also available on PC and PS3, and was recently released in [amazon_link id=”B007WQOIGW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]retail disc form.[/amazon_link]
John McClane is back again for his fifth adventure, this time teaming up with his grown-up son to take on a group of political radicals in the heart of Russia. There is just one problem with this; A Good Day To Die Hard is not really much fun and as a Die Hard fan it hurts a bit to watch.
As this Die Hard opens up we see that John McClane’s son Jack has gotten himself arrested for murder and is facing Russian justice so he heads off to Moscow to try and help out his “misguided” son. Truth being that Jack is in actuality a C.I.A. agent that has placed himself in his situation to rescue a Russian prisoner and get him out of Moscow in return for a mysterious file.
One of the best things the first three Die Hard’s did so well was great setup and character development. A Good Day to Die Hard abandons all this and literally within the first fifteen minutes McClane has found out where his son is, said goodbye to his daughter, had a taxi ride with a singing Russian, survived a courthouse bombing and is chasing down Jack and the Russian baddies through the streets of Moscow while causing rampant destruction. While you watch this it feels like you are about 30 minutes ahead of what your watch says. While that may work for standard action movies these days, for a Die Hard movie it seems like lazy filmmaking. There is no character development at all to this film. But we will get to that a bit later.
Photo courtesy tumblr.com
When Live Free or Die Hard was released back in 2007 it was the first in the series to abandon the “everyman” John McClane. That is one of the reasons the first three movies in the franchise worked so well. He was a cop. He made mistakes. He was a smartass and he had a sh**y family life. It was just that he was in the wrong places at the wrong (or right) times. LFODH set up McClane as almost indestructible. Like a bald, American James Bond who could take out helicopters with taxis. A Good Day to Die Hard continues this formula and even goes more over the top with some of the things that should break any normal man, but this McClane barely has a limp.
The sad part about this is that Willis can play the role of John McClane in his sleep. He does it here. The swagger, the chuckle, the smart ass comments. It’s all here, but the characters and script around the character are so very weak.
Pacing and character development are two of the serious offenders like I mentioned earlier. The movie’s breakneck speed, which may help action movies these days, is a detriment to a Die Hard movie. There is no time to develop any of the characters like Jack or the villains because the movie is too busy going from one explosion set piece to another. I really feel sorry for Spartacus alum Jai Courtney as Jack McClane. He is a great actor and could have worked a whole lot better as Willis’ son….if he had more to work with.
The presence of a memorable villain is non-existent. While I was not a big fan of Live Free or Die Hard, I did think that Timothy Olyphant’s role was a good one and worth remembering. This go round there are so many multiple Russian who all have there own agendas that by the time the main villain is revealed (20 minutes before the movie ends mind you), you really have given up even remotely caring about why he is there.
This is by far the shortest of the Die Hard’s. Where most run right at two hours or a little over this entry clocks in at only 97 minutes. Which is easy to see why when you watch the movie and see that there was not much material to work with and abandoned all hope of making you care about the players.
Photo courtesy inquisitr.com
I hope A Good Day to Die Hard does well in theaters which may sound weird given what I have just written, but here me out. There is still good material left for the John McClaine character. I have no doubt there is. I hope that A Good Day to Die Hard does not make people jaded towards the franchise. They just need to scale back the super-hero John McClane and get back to what made the first one so great. Develop a memorable villain, good setup and put in a worn down NYC cop who just happens to be there trying to do his best.
A Good Day to Die Hard is disappointing and not because of Willis. He was made to play John McClane, but the McClane character has got to get better and more realistic aspects working for him. If this was a normal run of the mill action flick it would be on the decent side, but being this is Die Hard we are talking about there is a higher standard that this needs to reach. Now I am going to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary by watching the first three entries.
