Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hands-on at E3 / Batman: Arkham Asylum


It happens in almost every movie, and I wouldn’t know nor would want to count how many times in the comics. A gang of four or so criminals are in a boiler room, sewer, tunnel, or really dark play pen… They’re carrying sacks of cash they just stole, and they’re pointing their flashlights around in search of “The Bat Man.” Initially, they’re cocksure that they’re going to find him, and gun him down. And why wouldn’t they? Four guys with guns against one crazed gunless vigilante who galavants about the city in a bat suit? It’d be absurd to think otherwise. But sure enough, The Bat Man swoops in and takes them out. One by one they go, and as each takes their turn meeting the unfortunately fated large Bat Fist to the Face, their confidence wanes. When it’s down to that last sorry sap, he is struggling to keep from peeing his pants. He flails the flashlight more erratically, and any little sound will set him off, causing him to fire aimlessly in what may not even be the general direction of the sound. It’s inevitable, he’ll be taken out, too. In the movies, it’s when this last guy gets it that the audience gets to see Batman’s face, right before he brutally renders the would-be fugitive unconscious. In Batman: Arkham Asylum, rather than following those criminals, you watch Batman do this the whole time. Not only do you watch, you are Batman. You get to swoop around, you dive in for a vicious stomp, and then disappear again, and you’re the one watching them as their fear grows and grows.

Is this a cool game? Yes.

STORY CONTINUES..

Massive MMO sale over at Steam


Just a heads up to anyone interested in exploring the wide world of MMOs outside of WoW — Steam is holding a giant sale of many of the MMO’s they have for sale on their service. The sale will last this weekend only and will give you savings of 20-75%. The list of available games:

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures : $9.99
City of Heroes Architect Edition : $15.99
EVE Online: Apocrypha : $7.49
EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer Starter Pack : $15.99
EverQuest Seeds of Destruction All-In-One Compilation Pack : $31.99
EverQuest II Rise of Kunark Starter Pack : $15.99
EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey : $9.99
Guild Wars Trilogy : $39.99
Lineage : $7.99
Lineage II: Gracia & trade Final : $15.99
Pirates of the Burning Sea : $15.99
Vanguard Saga of Heroes : $15.99
The one caveat to these awesome prices? These games still aren’t World of Warcraft.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Nintendo Mario is Back

A total of four new Mario games were announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3. First up is a sequel to the fabulous Super Mario Galaxy, surprisingly titled Super Mario Galaxy 2 — must have taken them ages to come up with that one! Miyamoto has promised that more than 90 percent of the game will be new, maybe more, as the team are using ideas that they couldn't fit into the first one. So expect plenty more upside-down, running around odd little planets and asteroids, let's just hope the camera positioning can be improved even more.

Next up, a brand new Super Mario Bros for Wii. Taking a leaf from the underrated "Zelda Four Swords" game, this time out Mario is accompanied not just by Luigi, but by two other characters — Toads initially, but who knows what you can unlock later.

The DS has two games coming soon. In the fall, the DS Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story RPG will be released in a localized version, in which the characters move through Bowser's body on the lower screen, while Bowser is up to his own mischief on the screen above. And if you can't wait that long for a new Mario fix, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis is a Mario puzzler game, downloadable from the DSiWare service on Monday.
 
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