For those who really like to be scared on purpose (not me!), you have good news (scary news) coming your way (look out!!): a new installment in the Amnesia franchise of PC games is coming from thechineseroom and Frictional Games.

According to Joystiq, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs will be set in the same alternate history and universe as the previous game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The game takes place in 1899 and features an industrialist who is haunted by dark visions of a spooky machine…and then it’s real! Agh! Boo! Scared you!

The developers are hoping to get the game released for the PC before Halloween this year. I will not play this game, though. Life is scary enough. I don’t need video games to try and make me wet myself. According to Facebook’s excellent advertising software, I’m doing a pretty good job of that already:

Via Joystiq

Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, announced this morning that mega-publishers Capcom, Namco-Bandai and Sega would be teaming up in collaboration on a new project related to the Nintendo 3DS. While no further details were provided, we were provided a link to the project’s teaser website.

Upon entering the site, you’re given what I would venture to guess is a hint of some kind, a door keycode: 032760. The hand that entered the code was blue, another possible hint.

Is it a game? Is it an application? Is it just genius marketing?

We don’t know yet, but I’m sure Nintendo will reveal something about it soon enough.

[via Andriasang]

Releasing alongside the North American launch of the PlayStation Vita today is a suite of media and social applications ripe for the downloading.

If you hop on over the PlayStation Store you’ll find that the Netflix, Flickr, and Twitter apps are all ready for download (for free) to your system. Flickr is called Flickr, Netflix is called Netflix, and Twitter is called… “LiveTweet”.

Alrighty then.

On that note, go get your tweeting, Netflixing, and Flickering on with your brand new Vita!

[via Joystiq]

Man, oh man! That Wired interview with Shuhei Yoshida sure does have a shit-ton of info—info like the current situation regarding the long-awaited PS3 title, The Last Guardian. Mr. Yoshida lays out the situation regarding the game’s creative director, Fumito Ueda, who had resigned from the company late last year, and even addresses the weird rumors that the game itself will never, ever come out.

Regarding Ueda, Yoshida is not at all defensive. Except for all the stuff that makes him sound totally defensive:

“First, let me set some facts straight. There was a rumor that [creative director Fumito] Ueda had left the company, which we confirmed. But it’s not like he left the making of The Last Guardian. He’s on top of the game and coming into the office. He could be the person who’s in the office for the longest time. The difference is that he used to be a regular employee. But now we have a contract to define his role. It’s a very special contribution and role that he plays and we agreed, let’s make it more official, more special. That’s the only difference.

“He never left the team, he’s on top of the game and the team is making progress. But the progress is slow and sometimes the team has to go back and review things. There’s a vision that we want to realize but it’s very, very tough and technical issue that the team is tackling and some plans have to be made to evaluate and go through the process. At one point the progress was great, so we talked about the timing of the launch in the past. But now it’s making progress, but still not to the level — it’s playable, but not to the point that we can talk about the timing of launch.”

But then the interviewer, Chris Kohler, asks about whether or not Sony Santa Monica has jumped in to help move development along. Yoshida thinks he’s got him, asking, “did you read it on the internet?”

And the Kohler straight up shoves THAT in his face: “I did not read it on the internet, no; I’ve heard from more reliable sources than the internet.”

I’ve never met you, Chris Kohler, but right now, you’re my hero.

“Well, you know, it’s not just Santa Monica,” Yoshida replies. “We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the U.S. and the U.K. so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the U.S. and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice.”

So The Last Guardian is NOT cancelled, and Ueda is STILL working on it, and things are moving SLOWLY. But the game will come out. Eventually. Probably. Maybe.

This game will never come out.

Via Wired

Over on Wired, there’s a pretty extensive interview with Sony’s head of worldwide game development studios, Shuhei Yoshida. There was lots of chit-chat and back-and-forth, but one of the salient points to come out of the piece was the discussion on why Sony decided to keep the UMD Passport program—which would allow PSP owners to play their old disc-based games on their fresh new Vitas—out of the US.

One reason, it seems, is because Americans are just don’t want it bad enough:

“I’m sorry we are not doing [the UMD Passport Program] in the States, but there are two factors that contributed to the decision as I understand it. I’m not in a position to make that kind of business decision. The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games. When you look at the release schedule of new titles there are still lots of PSP games being released in Japan and being announced for release. Lots of people who are interested in trying Vita are also interested in playing PSP games that they might purchase before Vita comes out, and will not necessarily choose the digital version.”

The other half, though, is pretty reasonable; namely, PSP games are just more expensive in Japan, and digital copies of games can be bought for the price of conversion anyway here in the States:

“The other point is that when you look at PSP titles sold digitally in the States or Europe, games are sold for a really reasonable price. You can buy Final Fantasy Tactics for $10. That’s a great price. There are many, many games that are sold at an affordable price. Because people in Japan are not getting the digital copy for free, because it costs us money to develop and maintain the system so we are asking people to pay somewhere between $5 and $10 to receive the digital copy in addition to what they have on the UMD. When you compare that to the price of games here, PSP games in Japan are sold at a much higher price, so people see the value in spending the $5 to $10 to get the digital copy. But when the games are already sold at a lower price in the U.S. we see less value in introducing that kind of system. The combination of the new titles available, or the lack of, and the price difference, the company decided to do that.”

Even still, how much does it really cost to maintain what seems to be a relatively automated system? I dunno…register a game’s serial number, pay a fee, they send you a download code…is it really that hard to make things equal for the rest of the world? I don’t know.

I don’t have a PSP or any UMD games, so, you know, it doesn’t really matter to me. But it might matter to YOU.

Via Wired

I know what you’re thinking, because I was thinking it too.

“Oh look, another music game you can play with a real guitar. Like Rock Band 3. And Rocksmith. And Power Gig.”

So I’ll skip right to the important question — what makes BandFuse any different? More importantly, if you’re an aspiring musician that has yet to sink money into any of the above options, what about BandFuse would push you over the edge? The answer comes in three parts: first; the game uses straight guitar tablature instead of scrolling notes to teach you how to play, second; this game can use any guitar with a pickup and a 1/4″ jack, and third; there’s some real marketing muscle behind this game.

Guitar tablature is the go-to method for writing out guitar music. If you’re unfamiliar, this is how it works. Rather than typical sheet music, guitar tab has six lines that correspond to the six strings on a guitar. Numbers on those lines indicate when and which fret you need to hold on the neck to play the corresponding note. It’s the standard for guitar notation, which makes BandFuse more useful as an educational tool.

In BandFuse, the note highway is horizontal across the bottom of the screen as opposed to its usual vertical orientation. Numbers stroll along the six “lanes” or “strings,” each of which must be played when it hits the timing marker on the left. The setup will be immediately familiar to anyone that has a passing familiarity with music games or guitar tab, which means the game teaches you transferable skills. If you’re used to reading tab, this game will come naturally for you. Conversely, you can spend time with this game and take that to normal guitar tab.

I had my time in a shitty high school band and played around with guitar through college, so I felt at home with the game’s notation. Of course, my skill on the six string is equivalent to that guy who piddles through the first ten seconds of a Metallica song in the cafeteria at lunch over and over again, so I was in way over my head with the game’s harder tracks. Still, I still felt like I was just on the edge of performing these songs for real.

Similar to the trio of real-guitar-games listed above, the guitar you hear through the game is your playing. Instead of detecting your press and playing a pre-recorded note, BandFuse just gives you a backing track and leaves you to play along. That means that latency will be less of a factor — it’s not about recreating the illusion of playing a guitar, it’s about actually playing guitar.

That’s why, like Rocksmith, BandFuse will work with any standard guitar pickup. At the demo they had prototype cords that adapted 1/4″ audio pickup to USB, plugging right into the front of the 360. Again similar to Rocksmith, the game boasts polyphonic detection meaning that it can separate out the chords you play to detect which notes are right and which are wrong. The game also scores tone and timing separately; if you hit the right note a little late or if you hit the wrong note on time, you’ll still come out better than doing nothing at all. I didn’t put the game’s accuracy through the ringer since it’s still very early in development, but it seemed on top of its judgments.

Finally, BandFuse is a bit of a wildcard because I get the impression it has very strong business ties. That much is apparent from the industry figures attending the preview event. Slash, former Guns ‘N Roses lead guitarist, will be featured in the game as a “Master Guitar Instructor” and was on hand to share his impressions of the game.

“It seems like a lot of people want to be able to play an instrument but they don’t want to put the work in to have to do that,” Slash said. “This takes a lot of the studious side out of it and just makes it more of a fun thing to do. All the sudden, you find out at the end of the day that you learned how to play something.”

Slash’s involvement with the game originated with Relativity Media, a motion picture investment firm that has an impressive resume in the movie industry. While I’m not an industry analyst, I understand that they have connections and money – the two things that could amount to something very special for BandFuse. What that something will become is totally up in the air, though. As the game is still a ways from release, the particulars of whatever business dealings they’re working out are still in flux, meaning they can’t be announced. Randall Cox, President of Relativity subsidiary Rogue Life, mentioned film and TV integration, which could put BandFuse in front of an audience that Rock Band and Rocksmith never touched.

That ‘we’re on to something but we can’t say what’ vibe was near ubiquitous, even when talking to Realta Entertainment CEO Steve Gomes (they’re the developers of the game, by the way). When I asked him if he could capture an audience that Rocksmith and Rock Band 3 missed, he had no hesitation.

“No doubt,” Gomes said, though when I asked him how, he was a little more coy. “There are some things I’m forbidden to talk about right now, unfortunately. But there are some very appealing elements of the game that will make it hard to resist for people to get in and do it.”

Cryptic to be sure, and maybe it’s just because the game’s playing hard to get, but I’m extremely intrigued. They also mentioned bundle deals with Fender, which means we might see a game / beginner electric guitar bundle for something in the $120 range. Pure speculation there, but at that price, you can sign me the hell up.

Finally, the most direct benefit Relativity Media might bring to the game is access to music. The preview I played already boasted some big names — 5 Finger Death Punch, Judas Priest, Maroon 5, Coldplay, Lynyrd Synyrd, and of course Slash — but I could tell the connections were in place to get the best content lined up for the game.

“That’s one of the things that I find most endearing about the game / music combination. People get exposed to music that they might not have been exposed to because it’s not current or might not be the style of music they’re listening to on the radio,” Slash said. “I know that was a popular thing for Guitar Hero. One of the things that attracted me to it was the fact that it had such a dynamic playlist. It wasn’t complicated, but it’s a bunch of songs that aren’t in the top 40 at the present time. It’s based on good material. These guys are going for the quality of the material, and a wide range of it.”

Right now, BandFuse is more questions than answers, but they’re all the right questions. In addition to directly hitting consumers, I could see BandFuse in schools and used by private instructors. Even talking about it at the office, everyone’s sentiments are the same — they want to play guitar, they just need a solution that’s easy and inexpensive. BandFuse might be that solution, but we’ll have to wait and see.

If you like shooting shit while flying around on a jetpack, then you probably like Tribes: Ascend. The game’s developers, Hi-Rez Studios, have announced that the open beta will begin on Friday, February 24. That’s, like, the day after tomorrow!

No, not that.

Interested gamers can head over to the game’s official website and get into it. The official announcement is right here, where it’s revealed that “over 300,000 players participated in the Closed Beta and the game has improved greatly based on community feedback.”

Not only THAT, but the game will receive a big, fat patch this week, the details reposted here:

• New gametype, Arena Deathmatch, with two initial maps
• New Capture The Flag map, Temple Ruins
• New Team Deathmatch map, Inferno
• Two new unlockable items for the Soldier class:  Proximity Grenade and Utility Pack
• New default suits for Doombringer and Brute
• Ability to view either Blood Eagle or Diamond Sword skins from Class menu
• Service supporting Name Change
• Large number of bug-fixes and balance adjustments.

So, yeah! There you go. Tribes will ASCEND (haha) to having an open beta on Friday.

Not too long ago, we reported on a few classic Game Gear titles making their way to the 3DS, a prospect that has me pretty jazzed. Well, Nintendo has held video press conferences in Japan and in the United States today, and while we did get Dillon’s Rolling Western announced for the eShop today, Japan got the Game Gear games. Reggie didn’t mention it at all.

A post on Joystiq has the details, explaining that three Game Gear titles—Sonic and Tails 2, Shinobi, and Dragon Crystal—will be heading to Japan’s eShop on March 14, costing just under four bucks apiece. Since the ESRB rated two Game Gear games (the source of the news in the first place at the beginning of the month), that means that means that they’ll be heading to the States sometime in the near future. But when? No info yet. Hopefully soon…I’d totally pay four bucks to relive my glory in Shinobi. And this time, I bet I can beat it without the Game Genie.

Shut up. You know you used it too.

Via Joystiq

Gearbox has released the above trailer for Borderlands 2. Outside of trade show presentations, this is the first video we’ve had of the game since its announcement trailer last year.

Enjoy, and prepare yourself for September 18th when Borderlands 2 releases on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Reggie Fils-Aime, the president and COO of Nintendo of America, starred in an awkwardly shot promo video for a bunch of the company’s offerings for 2012—on the exact same day of the United States launch of their biggest competition, the PlayStation Vita.

But despite the auspicious day Nintendo chose for the announcement video broadcast, there wasn’t much in the way of big, earth-shattering announcements…mostly just some info about upcoming game releases, and lots of awkward talking from game-making people. While I didn’t expect them to call out Sony outright, I did kind of think they might offer some bigger news…

Well, anyway.

Shortly after his introduction, Reggie turned things over to Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America’s director of product marketing, who talked about a new game called Dillon’s Rolling Western, a strategy-action game that looks like it has a lot in common with Rango, that weird, acid-fueled kids’ movie with Johnny Depp starring as a chameleon. The controls make use of the touch screen and circle pad, and from what I saw in the video, it actually looks pretty good, with a blend between action-combat and strategy-bits, where you earn and buy defenses to keep the town safe. Trinen said that the game was available on the eShop today, and he’s right—it costs $9.99. He also noted that it would take gamers about 20 hours to complete, so for ten bucks, that ain’t bad.

He also said this:  “Just one more reason to jump on the eShop steam train”

Veiled hints at some kind of secret partnership with Valve? Or just awkward phrasing? YOU decide!

Trinen then sat down with a couple of localization guys to discuss the upcoming releases of Kid Icarus: Uprising and Mario Tennis Open, the latter of which is scheduled to release in the US on May 20.

It was also confirmed (if it wasn’t already) that the US version of Kid Icarus would also be packed with the system-stand to aid in playing the game’s pad/touch-screen controls. During both interviews there’s some pretty good gameplay footage, so be sure to check that out.

Towards the end of the video, Reggie took over the proceedings again and started talking about the April 6 US release of Xenoblade Chronicles and announced the 2012 release of The Last Story in the States. If the latter of those two titles sounds somewhat familiar, it should: it was made by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who announced the other day that he’s now working on a surfing game for the iPhone. And also, you know, “Last Story” sounds a shit-ton like “Final Fantasy.” But I can’t have been the first person to notice that.

And that was about it! The whole video is available right here. Take a look and let me know whether or not you’re a little disappointed there wasn’t something more major announced…

Developer: Novacore Studios / Publisher: Kalypso / Platform: PC / Release Date: March 2012

IN SEARCH OF A HOME CALLED EARTH

A 3D, massive-scale empire/strategy/combat game, set in the wild black yonder of deepest space; a rag-tag fugitive fleet, hurtling back though the howling emptiness of the void, in search of a home planet…that may no longer even exist; customizable, module starship chassis in which to slot generation-ark modules, point-defense systems or hideous offensive weapons; screen-filling planets to terraform, colonize, defend and/or bombard; and three different races, balanced yet distinct in their appearance, technological orientation, styles of combat, and even modes of commerce. Familiar-sounding? You bet. And it’s a damned good thing, too, since a name like Legends of Pegasus seems otherwise deliberately designed to evoke high-fantasy images of dragons, magic and swordplay. Judged by its cover or not, Kalypso’s forthcoming, ambitious space-empire game definitely looks big, beautiful, and promising (if potentially a little overwhelming).

Legends of Pegasus, then, is a grand-scale strategy game of the so-named ’4X’ genre (“eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate”, in case you were wondering) in the vein of Sins of a Solar Empire or Sword of the Stars, with more than a few comfortably-familiar dramatic, thematic, and presentational echoes of Homeworld, Star Trek: Voyager, and, of course, Battlestar Galactica. The setup: You assume command of a (music-cue, please) rag-tag fleet of long-haul starships, making its weary way back to (or at least, towards) Earth after having been sucked through a wormhole to way, way, way out in the interstellar boonies. Earth, which gets attacked at the outset of the game, may be waiting at the end of this journey, or it may have already come to a dismal end—either way, it’s your job to take your fleet of survivors and rebuild civilization, fend off alien foes and just generally scrape out an existence along the way until such time as the ultimate fate of the Homeworld can be determined. And who knows? A little epic-scale payback might not be entirely out of the question.

In addition to humankind, Legends of Pegasus also features two other classes of playable beings: The Xor, a mechanical/insectoid class of entities, and a third as yet unrevealed ‘organic’ race (unconfirmed, but possibly called ‘Arthrox’)—so Starcraft enthusiasts at the very least should feel more or less at home. Happily, developer Novacore appears to be pushing the narrative aspect in this one, so those already deeply geared toward sprawling-scale strategy games will have some edges and nooks to get their single-player fingers into. As such, new player-hints, game-features and story revelations are to be doled out in easily-digestible bites—there is nothing quite so off-putting as dumping an inexperienced player smack into the middle of a crazy complex empire-builder.

With this caution in mind, Legends of Pegasus will see the first-time player dabbling not only in the human experience, but with alternating involvements in the other two race’s affairs. Furthermore, in the name of player involvement, Pegasus boasts a very personalized, modular ship construction/upgrade scheme for every ship in the game. Pick your basic starship chassis (heavy cruiser, frigate, freighter, generation-ship, etc.) and choose from a plethora of different ‘modules’ to plug into it—everything from individual point-defense batteries and main-drive propulsion systems to huge, core energy-weapons redolent of the ‘Wave Motion Gun’. There are even hangar-bay modules from which fighter-class craft can be launched, effectively turning the mother ship into a carrier-class vessel in the vein of a Colonial Battlestar. Thankfully, all such modifications are actually reflected not only in the performance but in the outward appearance of any given ship, adding just that much more personalization to the process (and yes, you can name your ships too, a nice touch). A comparable modular system is used to represent the useable surfaces of the games numerous, gorgeous and (when you orbit close enough) screen-filling planets…once you’ve colonized them of course, and assuming they’re viable ‘rocks’ and not gas-giants (those have other uses).

Ship/colony construction, processes like terraforming, general planning and movement along intragalactic travel-channels—star lanes, what some hex-board space games call ‘warp lines’—all take place at a turn-based pace, but battles are conducted in real time, allowing such tactical finesses as ‘fighter-mobbing’ large ships, tractor beams, ‘flanking’ and even the last-ditch use of crippled, overloading ships as suicide bombs (although ramming seems to be out as a viable option). Fleet arrangements seem to retain their orientation from the game’s big-scale deployment to that on the ‘battlefield’. After all the blood(or whatever)shed, scrap parts can even be salvaged by players who have come to the fight with special scavenger modules; other hulks left wrecked in space may eventually be harvested by one of four neutral guilds that roam the game universe.

Legends of Pegasus promises a lot of great little touches that can make or break any game…but particularly one of this scope: The customization of ships is so deep that, if you zoom in close, you can see individual point-defense batteries recoiling as they belch out plasmatic flak; civilian ships will look decidedly different from military ones, thanks to features like hydroponic-spheres and biodome plug-ins; you can’t just jam your fleet full of bloated, bruiser dreadnoughts and steamroller the other side, because smaller vessels can outmaneuver them and even thwart their targeting systems; a planet will actually exhibit changes on its surface as it is terraformed (‘blue’ planets—what Star Trek might call ‘Class M’ worlds—naturally terraform easier and quicker than more hostile worlds); and ship/unit responses boast more personalized audio responses than the generic ones utilized in so many strategy-games…that’s the Plan, anyway, and if delivered upon, a very, very good thing.

Pegasus will also offer multiplayer (at least eight, with the aim of sixteen players), of course. In multiplayer, while other players are battling in real-time, non-involved players can watch the entire battle unfold or go about their colony-tending business (albeit without the capability to execute any actions; they can design new ships or fleets, but cannot ‘finish’ any turns until the combat is resolved). Players with the proper confidence/ego/delusion can of course opt to auto-resolve combats, which helps move single-player along. Finally, there will be a two-player cooperative mode, and a riskier alternative called Emperor Mode: Lose your massively-ally-buffing ‘you’ avatar at any point, and it’s Civilization Over, man, Civilization Over.

Legends of Pegasus is arguably Kalypsos’s most massive/ambitious title ever, and it certainly looks deep and beautiful at this stage; we’ll learn the fate of mankind—and other-kind—when the game ships near the end of March 2012.

I could drone on and on about the content you’ll get in Rise of the Martian Bear — and in fact I will in a bit — but I’ll bottom line it for you here: if you enjoyed Iron Brigade, get this DLC. It’s cheap and it’s awesome, just be aware that it’s also really hard.

Okay, now on to that other info. Rise of the Martian Bear adds a new five-mission campaign that takes you to Mars to, yes, fight a bear. There’s more side content too — two survival missions, 80 pieces of gear, and new enemies to test that gear out on. The new gear is more substantial than getting slightly-more-powerful versions of old weapons, with some of the more outlandish gear adopting weird properties. While I didn’t unlock ALL the equipment (I have to sleep sometime), I did unlock an artillery cannon that places a small scrap collector wherever it lands which was awfully convenient.

The new enemies in the DLC fill in some holes in the waves, though to be honest the game still does boil down to “drop sniper turrets everywhere and rush down Jacobs as fast as you can.” Cathys and Noids are two new enemy types that directly target you instead of your objectives, though I find they didn’t really change my strategies much. The real game-changers are the new miniboss tubes — the Arty and the Volt Dropper. Arty is an artillery tube, which either requires a beefy net of sniper cannons or a fast mech with big guns to take out quickly. The Volt Dropper is a bomber and the biggest threat. Volt Droppers circle the map and drop charges on your objective which deal massive damage. Previously a few flak cannons were all the anti-air you needed, but the Volt Dropper adds a real threat to the air that was never there before.

There’s one big gotcha in this DLC though; it’s really goddamn hard. The “Settlement” mission is a particularly common stumbling block, which I know because everyone I played with online was trying to clear it as well. It’s not impossibly difficult, but I did have to grind out some levels and gear before I could clear it. Luckily the new survival missions in the Martian Bear DLC are great for earning levels and gear.

Like I said in the intro, if you enjoyed Iron Brigade, this DLC is a must-have. There’s a lot of content here and the price is right. Plus how often to you get to see a bipedal bear with a fantastic Russian beard? The answer is not very often at all.

Editor’s Note: The content of the DLC is not different enough from the content of the original game to necessitate another score.

You know how in Terminator they used dogs to tell if someone was a kill-bot or a human? Well, I found a better test. Playing Rhythm Heaven Fever will tell you if there’s a shred of a soul left in your body.

Despite being a collection of minigames in WarioWare fashion, the way the game revolves around rhythm and music is so simple but so deeply enjoyable that you can’t help but love it… unless you’re an unfeeling robot trying to exterminate the human race.

GAMEPLAY

Rhythm Heaven Fever’s structure is incredibly similar to its predecessor Rhythm Heaven on the DS. The game is broken up into ten sections, each of which contains four minigames and a remix stage that combines the four preceding games into a longer song. Do well enough on a game and you earn a medal; earn enough medals, and you unlock rhythm toys (a drum kit, wind-up car, etc) and extra, more difficult games. Sounds standard, but Rhythm Heaven’s real magic is how music and rhythm integrate into the minigames.

Describing that magic is difficult, but I’ll give it my best shot. By using deceptively complicated polyrhythms and visual tricks, the games in Rhythm Heaven are deceptively difficult–sort of how patting your head and rubbing your stomach sounds simple until you try it. The rhythm test at the beginning of the game is a good example of this. They start you off two measures of a simple 4/4 beat, and all you have to do is tap the A button on every eighth beat. Then they drop the seventh beat, then the sixth. Before you know it, you have two measures of total silence before you have to tap the A button, with only your internal sense of rhythm to guide you and a graph showing how far off your last beat was. It’s one-button gaming at its finest; a simple concept that anyone can play crafted with deceptive difficulty that ensnares you before you know it.

Despite hitting on such a simple but gratifying formula for gameplay, Rhythm Heaven Fever falters in its variety and content. Though the game isn’t asking full retail, I was still a little disappointed at how quickly I finished each challenge. While there are 50 events to try, the last 15 are simply harder versions of those you’ve already played. This Wii version adds limited multiplayer, but only in the case of a select few games, and won’t offer more than twenty minutes of fun. While Fever does have a few mechanics to keep you playing–the aforementioned medal collecting and the occasional opportunity to earn “perfect badges” on stages–the game winds up being more of an interesting diversion than a full gaming experience.

SOUND

From a mechanical and thematic perspective, the music and sound in Rhythm Heaven Fever work incredibly well with the game. The music is all upbeat and poppy, which makes sense given that the game is backed by Japanese songwriter/producer Tsunku (writer for J-pop acts Morning Misume, Aya Matsuura, and others). If you have a baked-in aversion to bright and sunny music, the game may clash with your tastes but otherwise it’s as universal as music gets.

Mechanically speaking, the music works really well with the games themselves. The sound effects tied to your actions in the game–kicking balls, punching flying drums, etc–sound like drum hits, which reinforces the rhythmic nature of the game. The backing track is usually subtle enough not to obscure the beat, and when it does, it’s intentionally so for the sake of challenge. While this game won’t teach you about rhythm as effectively as a music class, it will show you a mechanical side to music that you may have not experienced before.

VISUALS

Rhythm Heaven Fever employs a simple and clean graphic style that succeeds based on how damn weird it is. Every game revolves around an oddball concept that instantly grabs your attention. One game involves a boy sitting on a park bench with his date, kicking away basketballs and soccer balls as two weasels cheer him on from a hole in the ground. Another takes place on a wristwatch, which keeps the time by a monkey sitting on the second hand high-fiving sixty other monkeys that pop out of the rim of the clock as he passes. You’ll see cats playing badminton between two airplanes in the sky and microbes swimming in unison on a petri dish. Discovering the oddball framing for the next game is just as much a hook to keep playing as the game itself.

BOTTOM LINE

Rhythm Heaven Fever is one of the most delightful games I’ve ever played, and the price is decent for the amount of content. For gamers interested in music or gaming oddities, this game is a must-buy, though it’s a harder recommendation for a self-professed hardcore gamer that hasn’t powered up his Wii in years. Meaty game experience it’s not, but it’s still worth experiencing unless you have cold, black oil running through your veins.

8 / 10

I’ve never been too big a fan of first-person-shooters—I’m kind of sucky at them. But I am a fan of Batman and things that have even tangential relationships to him and his fictional world. That’s why I was both intrigued and more than a little puzzled when Gotham City Impostors was announced. A Batman-themed first-person-shooter? I mean, that guy’s whole shtick is that he doesn’t kill… and that’s pretty much all you do in this game.

After playing it for a few days, I’ve come to appreciate this game for its fun attitude and addictive gameplay, despite its shortcomings and missteps.

Gameplay

Many have said that Gotham City Impostors is a Batman-licensed Team Fortress clone, and I’m not inclined to disagree. Players square off on opposing teams, toting multiple guns and gadgets to kill the other team as often as possible. The game offers five pre-made characters—striker, scout, medic, defender, and sniper—each with specialized weaponry and accessories to emphasize their strengths and cover up weaknesses. The defender, for instance, is big on bulk and low on neck, boasting maximum strength and health, but is slow of foot. His load-out provides strong, heavy weapons and an air glider to help his mobility… and crush foes when he crashes to the ground.

As you play, earning XP and gaining levels, you can unlock more weapons, mods, gadgets, and body types, allowing you to mix and match load-outs to best suit your own style of play. You also earn costume coins, redeemable for cosmetic customizations of your character, like different Joker-wigs, or more (or less) professional looking Batman cowls.

There are three basic modes of play: Team Deathmatch, Fumigation, and Psych Warfare, the latter two being variations on Capture the Flag. In Fumigation, the two teams battle to occupy three bases for as long as possible. When each base is held, that team’s signature gas (bat pheromone or Joker-gas) is released into the air. Victory is granted to the team that out-gasses the other, or who’s passed the most gas in the time allotted. Psych Warfare is more straight-forward: teams vie to capture a battery to power propaganda machines. When a team powers their machine, their opponents are stripped of weapons and gadgets—but earn extra points for slap-killing enemies.

There’s not much more to it than that—there’s a perfunctory Challenge mode that represents the game’s only foray into single-player gaming, tasking you with traversing one of the five maps in a certain time limit or quickly take out targets, but it’s not particularly compelling. It would’ve been nice if there was an offline, single-player campaign to play, or options for playing split-screen multiplayer locally, or for setting up custom rooms and games with AI-controlled bots so that you and your friends could have private turf wars. Sadly, none of that is here. That said, those missing features don’t detract from the enjoyable lunacy of the game. It’s all the fun of laser tag or paint ball, but from the comfort of your sofa and a coating of Batman weirdness to top it off.

Additionally, the gadgets and accessories really spice things up. It’s fun to experiment with gliders or spring-shoes for increased mobility, while stealth gas or infrared goggles offer dynamic tactical advantages. The downside is you’ve got a lot of level grinding to do to earn XP to unlock all the customizations, and you’ll frequently fall victim to gamers who’ve already done so. Fortunately, the game seems pretty well-balanced, so everyone’s got a shot at scoring kills, and XP is awarded just for seeing a match through, limiting the number of rage quits.

Control

The basic FPS control scheme is at work here: left trigger to zoom, right trigger to shoot, gadgets on the bumpers, left stick to move, right stick to aim, etc. Those who prefer to play with a mouse and keyboard will still feel that way, but playing with a controller works pretty well. Most importantly, each body-type feels the way they should—small characters zip around, larger characters are more sluggish. The mobility gadgets add a different control wrinkle that’s fun to master. Zip-lining through stages takes practice, and graceful gliding is a very useful skill to learn. While I’m still not coordinated enough to really master the alternative movement modes, I’ve seen how much deft roller-skating can aid a player’s score. I’m definitely going to unlock those next.

Story

Gotham City Impostors doesn’t so much have a story as it has a premise: when Batman’s out of town, crazy people put on homemade costumes and shoot each other to hell. The game’s “initiation” mode, which is the tutorial, hints at an underlying story of two street gangs at war for control of the city, but without any kind of story-based campaign, it’s never fleshed out.

In some ways this is fine, considering “Batman,” “The Joker,” and “Gotham City” are enough to conjure stories in fans’ heads. But the game’s aesthetic and introductory cut-scene point to great comic potential that I’m disappointed doesn’t get more attention. It’s clear that the people who made the game were having a good time sketching out the characters who inhabit this game, evidenced by the genuinely fun and funny victory cries and various lines of dialogue that the characters deliver throughout. Maybe we’ll get some DLC down the line that could bring more of this out.

Visuals

The game’s visual aesthetic is like a stylized, cartoonish take on the recent Arkham games. Characters look like they’ve been pulled from the pages of a comic book, supplementing the game’s cartoonish violence and premise. Because you’re shooting—and being shot by—caricatures, the game has more in common with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd than Modern Warfare… which, now that I think of it, sounds like a great premise for another FPS.

The environments aren’t particularly memorable, though Crime Alley and Amusement Mile offer more personality than the other three environments (The Docks, Ace Chemical, and Gotham Power). But all five offer plenty of detail and bright color to make them fun places to rampage. There isn’t anything revolutionary going on here, but the game as a whole is generally a fun place to look at.

Sound

The sound is one of the game’s biggest strengths and weaknesses. The voice actors have done a great job bringing personality to the nameless characters, spouting dialogue that is usually pretty funny, and rarely annoying. Sound effects, too, emphasize the game’s insanity, like with the high-pitched whine and subsequent crash that comes with a gliding character dive bombing you from above.

On the other hand, none of the maps have any music at all. While this isn’t the worst thing in the world, it’s quite a missed opportunity, especially given the rich a catalogue of scores and soundtracks at Warner Bros.’ disposal. The menu screen offers a whimsical adaptation of the Danny Elfman-composed score from Tim Burton’s Batman, and the animated tutorials feature music reminiscent of The Venture Bros., but that’s all you get.

Bottom Line

I can’t help but feel like there could’ve been more to Gotham City Impostors. Free downloadable content has been promised for the game, which will undoubtedly help to flesh out the whole experience. But while there isn’t a whole lot of game here, there’s definitely no question that this is a very fun game that does what little it does well. First-person shooter addicts can definitely have a good time here, while curious Batman fans can enjoy this while we wait for the next sequel to the Arkham series.

7/10

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 releases once again, actually for the third time (if you count the original MvC 3 release), but now for the Playstation Vita! This time around the game comes with extra features unique to this Vita release. But with these additions is it really worth the purchase? I’ll cover the pros and cons of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PS Vita and see how it stands up to the console versions.

VISUALS

First off, the game looks amazing! There is hardly any graphical difference from the console version to the PS Vita version. If I had to be nit-picky about it, the only difference I see is the special effects texturing. When an attack lands you see a little bit of pixilation from the sparks that fly off the characters. Also when preforming a Super Move, you don’t get all the flash, flares, and explosions in the background that you would normally get from the console versions.  But that’s just me taking a white glove to the surface.

GAMEPLAY

The speed is also on point. I haven’t experienced any frame rate changes on the PS Vita version versus the console version. It runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, and with that five-inch, multi-touch, OLED screen, this is truly a great port to visually enjoy.

This Vita iteration also offers online play through the Sony Entertainment Network. While playing online with the PS Vita, I didn’t experience any problems.  I played over a Wi-Fi connection and set up my match pretty much the same way you would in the console version. I didn’t experience any lag or any disconnected matches at all. Gameplay was smooth and very responsive. We weren’t able to test the connection over the AT&T 3G option, but naturally, chances are successes will entirely depend on the strength of that connection and fluctuations in consistency wherever you live.

While playing online I unlocked a special costume and discovered a Vita feature called Near. With Near you are able to leave special items, like costumes, in the location that you choose. So say if I leave an item that I unlocked in a game at the location of my house, someone in that vicinity can actually download that item to their PS Vita and use it in the game. It wasn’t clear if the PS Vita uses its GPS location data for this feature in order to know where the item was placed, but this is a pretty cool option for generating and keeping friends, and I hope more games will use this.

CONTROLS

With the PS Vita you have the option to play in Touch mode. It’s not a greatest addition to the game but it offers a new element to the gameplay. While using the touch function you can pull off a decent chain combo just by touching the screen in succession.  You also have the option to turn on the back touch screen if you don’t like using the front and having your hands in the way of the on-screen action.

When it comes to playing any game on the PS Vita, one of the important factors to consider is the controls. If you own the PlayStation 3 version of UMvC3 you can use your PS Vita as an “ULTIMATE CONTROLLER”. This enables you to use the touch screen to launch special moves and super moves in the console version of the game with just one touch of your portable. Once you are in Touch mode, it actually has certain properties attached to the gameplay in order to use the touch feature. For instance, automatic block is enabled when using the touch ability. Also while attacking you don’t just start throwing out punches. You sometimes dash towards your opponent and then attack them.

In my opinion, the touch screen doesn’t really serve that much of a usable purpose, especially for any tournament players out there. I played around with it for about five minutes and went back to using the D-pad.

BOTTOM LINE

All-in-all Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the PS Vita is a great port from the console versions. All the original characters and modes are there. And with the ability to challenge other players online and offline, gives it an even greater replay value.  It would have been nice if it came packaged with the DLC characters Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath. (That would have been a great incentive to purchase the game if I already had the console version.)

So if you are up to play UMvC3 on the go, the only way you can do it is on the PS Vita.  In my opinion Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was a fun game to play on console.  It makes it even better to play it on the go with nearly no downgrades.  If you are looking for a fighting game for the PS Vita and you haven’t played UMvC3 by now, this would be a great buy. If you already own it for either console, it’s practically the same fun, chaotic game packaged with touch screen features.

9/10

A post over on CNET reveals that Electronic Arts will be launching a free-to-play game based on the Simpsons for iOS devices, with an Android version coming later.

Called The Simpsons: Tapped Out, the game will give players the opportunity to progress more quickly by buying virtual currency in the form of donuts, because of course you can.

EA’s senior vice president of global publishing for social and mobile gaming, Bernard Kim, has high hopes for the title:

“We want this to be one of the biggest titles this year. We’ve invested a lot. It’s absolutely a top-tier development priority for us.”

The post notes that the game was made with the help of the show’s writing staff and voice actors. The Android version is still a few months a way, so you iPhoners will have to give this thing a test-drive and let us know how it goes in the next few weeks.

Pretty exciting stuff, right? Peter Simpson is, like, one of the best characters on TV these days. And that talking dog is really funny.

Via CNET

One of the games I’m most excited for (and probably not for very good reason) is the forthcoming Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. It’s set for release on PC, PS3, and Vita in mid-March, and I’m hoping for a game that at least matches the crazy weird sci-fi, the brain-bending time-travel junk, and some basic action-adventure fun. And two-player co-op is always a welcome gameplay addition.

Now, as you can see in the new trailer above, the graphics in the game aren’t totally mind-blowing. Interestingly, though, this title utilizes Epic’s Unreal Engine, and it’s being billed as the first Vita game to do so.

“At Supermassive, we always try to be very pragmatic about our choice of technology and choose the right tool for the job at hand. Our aim for ‘Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock’ is to match it as closely as possible in aesthetics, tone and sound to the television series, and also to achieve a new level of quality on Sony’s outstanding platforms,” said Jonathan Amor of developer Supermassive Games in a press release published today. “Critical factors in our decision to license Unreal Engine 3 include the capability and maturity of the Unreal Editor and tool chain, and we required an engine that has proven success in the marketplace.”

It all looks about right for a downloadable title, and at the very least, they seem to have the likenesses of the characters down. The voice acting, too, uses the actual actors, so that’s another big plus.  And, let’s also note for a moment, the Doctor Who show isn’t really known for its amazing special effects, but rather its emphasis on compelling stories and characters, and wacky adventure. If the game can get those elements down, then this thing will be great. I mean, I blubbered like a little bitch during the last DW Christmas special.

Hopefully this game will make me cry like that, instead of from being lousy. Crossing my sonic screwdrivers…