Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a hack and slash game based on the fantasy created by J. R. R. Tolkien. This story takes place during the same period as the books (or movies), but in the game, the tale told is that of another group of adventurers. There have been many attempts to translate the rich world of LotR into video games, and many have failed. However, while still not the definitive Tolkien experience, I’ll agree with the bold statement made in the cover: “this is the best LotR game yet”. After the movies came out (2001, 2002 and 2003), everyone started looking at this universe differently. Peter Jackson really raised the bar when giving life to Tolkien’s stories, and I was glad to see this represented in the game. Environments are rich and varied; weapons and armor also have a very unique feel to them. Character models are simple, but you’ll certainly note the resemblance of some of the known characters, like Elrond, Aragorn and Bilbo. Effects are few, even when casting spells or using special skills, but this works out for the best because it does not get in the way of your view of the battlefield, which gets really busy at times. Textures are decent, but what really upped the visuals a bit was the lighting. Animations are the only thing that disappointed me a little bit, but only during cut scenes (and there are many), because combat looks really good and fluid. Like most action games, it’s really simple to switch between weak, strong and ranged attacks. Special skills acquired through leveling are just as easy to use and can change the tide of the battle. You’ll play as one of 3 classes (ranger, warrior or mage), each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but since they’re always together it doesn’t really matter which you choose. Just make sure it’s the one more suited to your play style. The ranger (based on Aragorn, a.k.a. Strider) is more of a DPS character and a great archer. His bow and arrow skills are extraordinarily useful, but he also handles close combat pretty well (unless surrounded by stronger enemies). The warrior (a dwarf that looks a lot like Gimli) is your tank character, with a bunch of war cries that will boost your party’s stats. Finally, the mage (which doesn’t resembles much any of the members of the fellowship) is an elf with some great control abilities and also works as the healer and ranged defender. You can play as any of these characters (and change in between major checkpoints if you feel like it) while the computer (or someone else) controls the other two. Working together is the key to overcome the biggest challenges. Based on the epic score of the movies, I was expecting the soundtrack to be more remarkable, but it ended up being a bit repetitive and otherwise uninteresting. Sound effects are good and do justice to the fun combat. Unfortunately, not the same can be said about the voice acting, which is very inconsistent. In a game with as many cut scenes as this, you’d expect more, especially since Nolan North lends his voice to the ranger. However, the dialogue does not sound like Tolkien, which only serves as aggravation. The story has you running after a sorcerer by the name of Agandaûr to prevent a massive attack at the North ( ! ) while helping those who are somehow hindered by his evilness along the way. I thought it worked fine for the game, and while it might not be as epic as Frodo’s journey, it certainly didn’t feel out of place or sounded unbelievable in the overall scheme. Please note that I’m a fan, so don’t take this lightly. Like many action games, combat can get a bit tiresome at times. Fortunately, you can switch between characters and mix it up a little bit by trying different play styles every once in a while. I only wish you could do this on the fly right in the middle of fights, instead of having to quit and reload to do so. Co-op is certainly the way to go, since your AI partners aren’t really bright and don’t usually take orders that well. I also enjoyed having a New Game + option, since, for some reason, I always appreciate starting the game more and more powerful (however, at least 3 playthroughs on increased difficulties are required to platinum the game). Overall, I was pleased with Lord of the Rings: War in the North. It certainly scratched my itch for something related to the subject and it was really interesting to see something new created for this rich universe, even if it’s not nearly as good as the original. A hack and slash RPG with solid combat and placed in the best fantasy world ever created; this is how I’d describe it. A great time for anyone interested in one great cooperative game or just looking to revisit Middle-Earth. Review Pros Cons A Lord of the Rings game! Solid and rewarding combat Fun co-operative experience Lots of loot to hoard and secrets to uncover Bland soundtrack and voice acting Overly complicated menus make it annoying to switch characters and manage equipment Story is fun, but fails to deliver a true LotR feeling of epicness Rating 87%

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[Review] Lord of the Rings : War in the North

The highly anticipated Twisted Metal PS3 lands on PSN today just in time for the community event being held on their facebook page, which can be found here .They have some nice prizes for the winners. Read on below. Winner of the Twisted Metal Multiplayer Tournament will receive a Twisted Metal laser-etched PS3, and special prizes will be given away to participants and the top 10 players. David Jaffe and company will also be handing out special Twisted Metal items (exclusive to this event!) all night long. You’ll need to be present to win! David Jaffe has just jumped in on some of the community’s questions over at Sony. Will Twisted Metal feature a Party System for easy play with friends? 100%! The new Twisted Metal supports Party and Clan systems allowing players to easily jump into ranked and unranked matches together. The party system was key, not just because it’s a staple for online games, but because we heard from so many players who came up playing this game with friends (be it as little kids, or college students) and now their crew have scattered across the globe and they were asking us for a fast, easy way to jump into games with friends so they could relive some of those fun memories (and ideally make a lot more new ones)! Will Twisted Metal have splitscreen coop missions? Split screen local co-op has been a staple of the series since TM2 and it’s back and better than ever. The campaign that you and a buddy can go through together is more varied than any other TM campaign we’ve done. And the other split screen modes- for 2 to 4 players on the same tv- allow for free for all and team games with lots of host options for players so they can tweak and adjust the game so it always says fresh. In 2 player split the players have 30+ levels to choose from. In 3 and 4 player split, players can choose from 10 battlegrounds. Is there any gameplay relevance related to the pedestrians in the environments, mechanics and trophies? Yes to all three questions . A good example: in the level called BLACK ROCK STADIUM- which is this ‘hi tech meat grinder-meets-Roman Gladiator Colosseum’ players can park their vehicles on pressure plates. Sitting on these plates long enough causes audience members to get ejected from the stands. Each audience member that is ejected is wearing one of two kinds of vests: a vest with a cross on it and a vest with a question mark. Hitting cross vested peds yields health. Hitting mystery peds yields a random weapon pick up. If you kill an enemy, the drive and gunner eject from the explosion and their burning bodies go running around in terror. After a few seconds they die, but if you can hit the gunner before he dies, you get a random weapon. If you hit the driver before he dies, you get a little extra health. Which characters are some of the Twisted Metal team’s other favorites? All of the human characters in the new Twisted made it in mainly because they represent the team’s favorite from a 50+ roster of characters that live in the Twisted Metal universe. So besides Tooth, we’re all big fans of Calypso, Mr. Grimm, Dollface, and Preacher. We also tend to dig No Face and Minion. As for vehicles, we love the cast of vehicles in the new Twisted and that’s a big reason they made the cut. We do miss some of our old friends however, such as Thumper, Pit Viper, Yellow Jacket, Twisted, and Mr. Slam. Source: Sony

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Twisted Metal Demo Lands Today on PSN

Activision has corrected their error when it was reported that on November 8 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 set the record for the number of players online at the same time on Xbox Live with 3.3 million. A press release was sent out yesterday that there were 1.4 million concurrent online players and 3.3

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Modern Warfare 3 Had 1.4 Million Simultaneous Users

Loyal minions! Thought I’d contribute a bit more to this quality website than my weekly effort of our award winning podcast. Get off my rump and type another page-turner of an article for you to read and then tell all your friends about. Something Mr. Andy Rooney would be proud of. Articles usually take me about 10 minutes to write, this one has taken me over a week. Let’s begin! Variety. People have been known to say that it’s the spice of life. Variety is a good thing in many aspects. It can make you grow, life and smile…which is fantastic in itself. People, and even the community you live in – loyal reader -, is made up entirely of variety. Different kinds of people, doing different kinds of things – all of whom are trying to live their lives the way they seem fit. And then there’s the other end of the spectrum: Repetition. Repetition can make people’s lives possible and bearable. And that’s where the comparisons end, although in itself, it’s boring and drab. It’s a black and white photograph of the underside of a bridge, and placed on a wall in a dentist’s office. Repetition is having the same meal over and over again, because you’re too afraid to try anything else. It serves no point and has no drive, no ambition, and no fortitude. Repetition is actually Variety’s arch nemesis. The two are not even close. It’s not the same sport, it’s not even the same league. The team has picked up, relocated and moved away to another country. Get my drift? Pertaining to video games though? Variety isn’t always the best policy. Variety is hardly recognized – except for when a development company receives the coveted, and highly sought after, game of the year award. The GOTY doesn’t always go to the most deserving development company, but the development company that shows it has the insight to be different. To be courageous enough to step across that blurred line of reality and gaming and say,” This is ours. This is out best effort. This is what we have created and would like to share with the world.” Who would’ve thought a game about a renegade outlaw, gun-wielding, horse riding, cowboy – would’ve won the prestigious GOTY award? And it did. I, of course, am talking about “Red Dead Redemption”. The developer, Rockstar Games, is known for making a line in the sand and double-dog daring you, as a gamer, to blindly step over it. With recent releases like L.A. Noire and newly announced GTA5. Using far beyond tech like face motion capture and implementing a riveting music process that goes along with everything they touch. One would agree that every step Rockstar has taken has only furthered game technology. They won it last year in 2010. How about a game that looks like a movie? A game that features a brash man with sweet tooth for treasures and rare artifacts? A man that runs towards gunfire and welcomes a fist fight with a gritty smile? Nathan Drake is the name and Uncharted is the game. Developer Naughty Dog is no stranger to the GOTY award, winning it for Uncharted 2 back in 2009. Naughty Dog, being a small Santa Monica based company, employs the gamers’ imagination not to take hold and grow roots when any gamer picks up and plays any of the Uncharted series. And they make the main character not only dear to any PS3 gamers heart – but relatable. A hero you can relate to? A game with a riveting story and even more impressive gameplay? An exclusive only to the PlayStation console? Naughty Dog sets their own rules and outshines in their latest effort, Uncharted 3 – which is one of the GOTY nominees. Everybody loves a dark horse. Everybody loves the underdog. Everyone roots for the not so lucky guy to get the girl and get that happy ending and go riding off into the sunset. This year, there’s: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Now believe me when I tell you. My friends list always seems to be full, a minimum of at least 20 people online at any one time. And over half of those fine folks are playing Skyrim. And not for 20 minutes or an hour. We’re talking for a non stop session of 12-16 hours. Any game that can wrap you up and say “have a seat” should be worthy of contention, and, personally, Skyrim is my pick for the dark horse for the 2011 GOTY award ceremonies this year. I’ve seen gameplay, I’ve seen peoples’ lives consumed. I’ve seen their rabid love of this game develop into its own thing. Something unexplainable, something so fevered and yet so revered at same time. To even try and badmouth this game – makes my legs shake with fear. People are in love with this game and the game loves them back with fascinating gameplay and jaw dropping visuals. Bethesda, the development company behind this title, knew exactly what they were doing when they unleashed this game to the hordes. They, as well, are in contention for this years 2011 GOTY award. The other three games on the 2011 GOTY nominee list, whereas, are not blockbuster material. They, indeed, have their own cult following and each of their own respected developer company’s sat up and refused to not go quietly into the night. They wanted to make a game for all to enjoy. For all to talk about, for all to try and come to their own conclusions. I want to take this moment to congratulate all the developers for their effort and their hard work for crossing that line in the sand and making this the new standard in video games. Thank you for all your sacrifice and hard work to give the entertainment that we know and had come to love. Thank you for not being cookie cutter and churning out another piece of garbage that’ll be in Gamestop’s bargain bin in a month and when we see it – it’ll instantly make us regret buying it new for $60. Thank you, most of all, for the one thing all video games need these days…variety.

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2011 GOTY VGA Awards – My Two Cents

Dark Souls is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I have no doubt about that. Being a huge Demon’s Souls fan, this has been on my radar ever since it first was announced and I honestly can say this is one of the few games that lived up to its own hype. After all, I’ve bought 3 copies of it and I still don’t think I wasted money. One of those is the Collectors Edition I got from pre-ordering the game, amazing content for no additional costs (all publishers should follow this example), the second I’ve bought because I’m only going to get the first late in December and I simply needed to play the game before that, however that one got terribly delayed, so I went on and bought another one. Long story short, I was dangerously excited and had extremely high expectations for the game. Fortunately, my expectations were surpassed and my excitement only got bigger. I’ve spent an astonishing 60 hours with the game over just one week and I didn’t skip work once! But enough about this rambling and, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail would say “GET ON WITH IT!”. Oh, and I’ll be making this review newbie friendly, so you’re welcome if you’ve never played Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls. The first thing you’ll notice when you start the game is the dark and eerie setting, and soon you’ll be introduced to the unforgiving nature of it. Shortly thereafter, you’ll discover the most amazing thing about it: the best control scheme I’ve ever seen. Trust me, it’s that good. Skyrim is partially copying some of it. I have no doubts that this combination is what makes the game so great, because you’ve got a huge challenge ahead of you (especially if you’re not used to RPGs and more so if you haven’t played Demon’s Souls extensively), but all the tools needed to overcome it are there. You only need to learn how to use them. The world of Dark Souls is huge and totally open for your exploration. You can finish the game and be completely unaware of many areas. Everything is permitted and whatever you see far in the horizon is a place you can go. In this sense, it is very rewarding, because some of the most precious moments of it will only be shown to those who take the time to look for them. The diversity of environments really impressed me. There are dozens of different ones, from foggy forests, to crystal caves, to creepy abandoned castles and some disgusting poisonous swamps; you’re never tired of looking at the same thing for too long. The lightning is impressive, reflexes, humid walls, fire and so much more set the tone perfectly. Most of the game is pretty dark, which makes you appreciate it even more. I’ve noticed some weird shadows under platforms where monsters stand, but it didn’t bother me. Textures are also very well done. Most of the time it’s difficult not to pay attention to the great amount of detail put into each room and corridor. Weapons, character models, and especially armor sets are a work to be reckoned. I constantly took a little break from all the killing and dying just to take a look at what beautiful gear had I amassed during my latest travels. As I said, the controls are perfect, shoulder buttons control each hand individually (L1 and L2 for left and R1 and R2 for right) and you can choose the intensity of each move (L2 and R2 for a stronger attack), the same goes for blocking or casting. The chain of commands will trigger different combos, all of those you should be very aware of, because they’re needed. You can also combine that to other actions such as rolling and jumping for even more results. The great thing about Dark Souls is its flexibility. For example, I play as a melee heavy class, but with zero investment in any stats I can wield very strong fire magic, it’s all about equipment. This shines when you’re having trouble getting trough an area and realize all you need is a change of strategy. Another great thing is that the developers decided each group of weapons should have a very similar damage output, so in the end, you’re faced with the question “What is your favorite move set?” This is interesting because you won’t be seeing the same weapon over and over again like in some other games. There’s only a little problem here: very rarely there’s an input delay and sometimes this means a gruesome death. A couple hours into the game I was thanking NAMCO for including the soundtrack with the Collectors Edition, because it is very beautiful and immersive. The deep tones made me feel hollow and scared, weary of each corner, and at times, excited and ready to conquer this magnificent world. I’ll be honest though, I’ve missed the terrifying singing of the Once Royal Mistress in Tower of Latria. Sound effects are also spot on, be that the clashing sound of a sword against a shield, or the creepy noise of some abomination down the hall. The music is complemented by constant screams and moans, sure to make you tremble with fear of the unknown. For those who have played Demon’s Souls you’ll be reintroduced to some sounds you’ve heard before, which can feel weird, giving how used you may be to some of those. And more times than I’d have liked to, I heard my own footsteps after I stopped walking, that could be an echo, but it just felt really strange. Possibly one of the greatest improvements over Demon’s Souls is the unbelievable level design. No level feels one directional, and if you intend to get the best of the game, thorough exploration is necessary. Taking risks is more than once rewarded, jumping off to far ledges or falling to some platform down below is advisable, most of the times treasure lies in wait, or perhaps a trapped NPC that is sure to help you for your troubles. There are dozens of shortcuts and hidden passageways you should take advantage of. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting a lot of time killing some enemies over and over again. This might not be the best news for people who are easily sidetracked, or those in a a hurry, but it’s certainly well worth your time. However, be warned, even though unknown paths are difficult to find, doesn’t mean they aren’t well guarded and filled with traps, so always proceed with caution. This is rule #1 for this game. While Dark Souls is not a story focused game, there’s an impressive quantity of lore scattered around Lordran. Most of it in form of dialogue with one of the many suspicious inhabitants of this worlds, but also description texts on weapons and sorceries for example. There are a few dozen NPCs, most with their own story arc, that you should be on the look out for (some of which I’ve missed on my first playthrough). Those make for a fine change of pace, to the mostly lonely journey, usually rewarding your efforts and shedding some light on what you should be doing. Most have possibly heard about the difficulty of Dark Souls and all the rumors are true, well, partially. Personally, I haven’t found the game that hard, although my good friend Jason told me NG+ is where things get interesting, but I’m not a newcomer to the genre. The cautious nature of the game is where most get lost. Used to easy healing or enemies that don’t really hurt you? None of those are present here. The key to survival is not getting hit, and playing as a heavy tank, for example, can prove to be very tricky. Every enemy has a pattern and to succeed you should learn it. This game is more about dodging and stepping in at the right moment than it is about sheer damage. Another important thing is to commit to your build, so don’t spread your points too much, otherwise you’ll be stuck with a useless character. I was very pleased with the fact grinding is a lot less necessary in this game. Simply playing will get you enough souls (aka experience points/money) to progress (that is of course if you’re careful). The last important part of the game is the online component of it, an incredible innovative way to interact with others. You can either play cooperatively or invade others and claim their souls, both can be tackled in various ways. Playing this game with others is a completely different experience. It gets a lot easier (even though enemies get tougher) and sometimes is the only way for those who are stuck. It is nice to give a helping hand once in a while, it feels good. Personally, I prefer PvP and I think it’s one of the best and most balanced systems around. It’s exciting and fresh every time and you’ll be sinking hours into it once you’re familiar with everything. The game wants you to play online so much, there are actually offline characters that simulate online play, which is very fair in my opinion. Some people are complaining about the matchmaking, but I’ve never had any problems myself. Finally, Dark Souls is impressive. It has everything an excellent game needs: amazing looks, perfect controls, and engaging gameplay. It’s also terribly addicting. Playing it for at least 60 hours is practically mandatory, but I doubt anyone that gets to that mark will be able to stop before a couple hundred more. There’s so much to be said about it, I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface with this review (and I haven’t) which only proves how great it is. If you’re interested in a challenging, yet extremely satisfying experience, than you should look no further. This game certainly isn’t recommended for everyone. It’s a masochistic experience at times, but it is more satisfying than any other game I’ve ever played. Review Pros Cons Beautiful environments Perfect gameplay Extremely addictive Extensive content As satisfying as a game can get Never cheap, always instructional Disappointing for those who are not up for it Occasional slow down on some areas Rare input delay Rating 95%

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[Review] Dark Souls

Remember how Bioshock Infinite will include a free copy of Bioshock in the same Bluray ? Well, now Assassin’s Creed Revelations is doing the same as it will include a free copy of the first Assassin’s Creed for no extra charge thanks to the extra space provided by Bluray! Will this make it easier for you to purchase Revelations? Free is free and free is great! Only the first print run for the game will include this bonus so be sure to pre-order here! Wonder what other games will do this…

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Assassin’s Creed Revelations on PS3 Has a Great Bonus!

I’m a huge fan of the top-down fantasy RPG genre made popular on the PS2 by the Baldur’s Gate and Champions of Norrath games. There were two in each series, and I’ve played the all. I’ve actually played through Champions of Norrath several times, and I still hold that game as the pinnacle of the genre (on consoles at least – Diablo is on the PC). The current generation hasn’t brought us many of these games,. The two I know are Untold Legends and Sacred 2. Untold Legends came out pretty early in the PS3′s life cycle, and I bought and played the whole thing co-op with a friend. It was alright, but not really anything special. Champions of Norrath was much better. Sacred 2 was much larger in scope, and held lots of promise. But it was very buggy, and these bugs prevented me from doing several things in game that I think are crucial to the experience, like swapping items with friends. It claimed that I was cheating, when I wasn’t. I tried wiping all my data and doing it again, but got the same result. This was really quite frustrating, and I eventually gave up on the game. Now Gameloft has ported Dungeon Hunter to the PS3, and I’ve been playing it online with some friends. How is it? Well, if I wasn’t such a big fan of the genre, aching to play a game like this, I’d probably give it a fail and move on. But because I really like games like this, I’m enjoying it in spite of its failings. What can I say? I love slaying orcs and wizards and big fat beasts with knives for hands. What has this game done right? Well, it has a lot of content for only $13. You get three character classes, inventory management, and skill trees. You level up and buy and sell things at shops. Standard stuff, and enough to make the game enjoyable to someone like me. Torchlight on the 360 did all these things better (much better), but did not have co-op. So I get to play Dungeon Hunter with two friends, which is great. What has the game done wrong? Lots of stuff. First of all, you’ll notice that the load times are terribly long. Like really long. Long long long. For a game stored on the hard drive, that’s deplorable. The game is buggy. It has hung or crashed several times. Last night my friend had to reboot his PS3. I had to quit the game and re-enter it. This has happened three or four times now in our fifteen hours of play so far. As well, as you play through the game, fairies join your quest and you can use their powers. Well, unless you’re Steve, in which case you can only see the default fairy and not the others. Then there’s the monster-off-the-map problem. One of the bosses was sitting out on the black nether region of the map, and we killed him from the sidelines. Lastly, there was also a problem with one person seeing quest completion while the rest of us didn’t. We had to kill the same boss twice! The game tries to make distribution of treasure fair by colour-coding the treasure drops. Only the character of the appropriate colour can pick up a treasure. All fine and good, except that my two friends and I are playing the three classes available, so we’re constantly swapping loot. It would be nice if they colour-coded the treasure according to which character can use it most. Another big problem is the level design, which is uninspired. Boring even. I just saw some video of the Crimson Alliance game that was recently released on the 360, and I felt shame for the Dungeon Hunter creators. The Crimson Alliance levels are so much nicer, it’s hard to make a comparison. When my friends and I are done Dungeon Hunter, we’ll turn to Crimson Alliance. There are lots of little annoyances in the game, many of which I haven’t mentioned, but the worst are the loading times and bugs. My friends and I are plugging our way through the game, and having some fun. But I think we’ll have more fun once we turn our attention to Crimson Alliance.

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Dungeon Hunter – My Impressions

If there isn’t another big home console for a few years, and the Vita delivers the roughly PS3 level hardware performance that Sony is claiming, why would people stick with home systems? Console gaming is the last non-portable holdout in the entire consumer electronics industry. Years ago, desktop computer users swore they would never trade in their desktops for laptops because they were so accustomed to laptops being so much worse than desktops. But as soon as laptops were good enough, desktop users did exactly that and made the switch. In the past and the present, portable consoles have been dramatically worse for most types of games than home consoles. Most people view them as completely separate industries where people play completely different types of games. Today, home console gamers play tons of FPS/TPS type games, and while those games exist for portables, they are basically garbage that almost no one plays. The Vita seems like it will be the first device to really change this dynamic and you will actually be able to play the same types of games at nearly the same quality that you would play on a non-portable system. A big trend is the rise of smartphone and tablet devices. While some gaming is definitely going in that direction, particularly games that work well with touchscreen/tilt controls and don’t need cutting edge technology, there is still a need for dedicated gaming hardware. Some games really benefit from gaming-centric controls (analog sticks, face and shoulder buttons, d-pad, motion wands, and soon VR type head tracking). Additionally, gaming centric hardware provides higher gaming optimized performance at mass market price points and has less fragmentation than the smartphone/tablet space does. But with the Vita, you have the benefits of a dedicated gaming platform, but also the portability that consumers want. If Vita really does let you play the big console games of 2012 at roughly the same quality that you would experience on a home console, why wouldn’t consumers migrate towards the portable option?

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Is Console Gaming about to go Portable?

Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, a four-player, side-scrolling, co-op, shooter based on Comedy Central’s animated series is coming to the PSN on August 30 for a retail price of $9.99. Here is the newest “Making of” trailer straight from GamesCom. Hit the jump for more info. “It won’t be too much longer until gamers everywhere can get their hands on the first COMEDY CENTRAL branded arcade game,” said Dan Yang, general manager, 345 Games. “We’ve been working hard to infuse ‘Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon’ with a combination of addicting gameplay and the comedic sensibilities that has made the show such a success. We feel that we’ve created an original and memorable game play experience.” With four-player top-down co-op gameplay that hearkens back to such classics as Gauntlet and Robotron, “Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon” features four playable characters, each with their own unique abilities, weapons and strengths. Players must comb the streets of New York City and pacify raving demons, delinquent man birds and zombies by lactating fire or hurling wacky objects like flying demon skulls, fish, baseballs and wrenches. Investigate case files from the Department of Integration and battle devastating and distinctive bosses at the end of each mission, each bringing you one step closer to finding out who is trying to bring about the end of days! “Ugly Americans” Airs On Thursdays At 10:30 P.M. On COMEDY CENTRAL. Source: Press Release

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“Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon New Making of Trailer and Release Date

First of all, be warned, as this is a long post and its many inquiries might feel unanswered at end, but if you also feel like the industry is increasing the size of the cookie factory and you keep getting the same batch of bland chocolate chip cookies, you might like it. Without further ado, let’s begin: What is the most innovative game you’ve seen lately? That’s a question I won’t try to answer at this point, I’ll let you guys think about it for a couple of minutes… OK, so what is the first thing that came up on your mind? Not so simple, isn’t it? I’ve noticed (and probably most others have) that the most noteworthy titles these days are sequels, and that got me thinking, is that all we want to see? I own a very small collection of PS3 games (about 16) and astonishingly, 50% of those games are sequels to games featured in the same platform; if I consider sequels to a series, that number jumps to 70%. It’s incredible how many developers we’ve seen lately seem so scared of trying something different. If you just think about your “top 10″ most expected titles this year, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Probably 90% of those games are sequels. Just as alarming is the time frame those sequels are being released. A good example is the Assassins Creed franchise. The first game released November 2007, the second, greatly improved, November 2009, the third, which brought nothing new except multiplayer, came a year later, and yet, another sequel is coming this November. This is debatable, but there isn’t that much difference between the titles and the story (which started strong) just felt rushed on the 3rd title. Who’s to blame? Should we not buy rushed titles or should they not be released? As a (industrial) designer I’ve come to accept the concept of a collective imagination, where people from the same society or group come to think alike and have similar ideas and references. I think games are very much similar. If we just go back a little and think about the time when inFamous came out, you’ll all remember a similar game called Prototype, both games shared many ideas, from story to gameplay (I haven’t played Prototype, so I’m speculating based on what I’ve seen and read about it). Many other games share mechanics just like those two, for example Bioshock and Mass Effect both feature the capacity to wield powers and guns at the same time (released September and May 2007 respectively). In the same way games share concepts, mechanics that worked for a title will be seen in many games. Sneak attacks, silent take downs, and cover are most sure to play a part in any shooter (and many other genres as well) these days, but this wasn’t the case not that many years ago. Multiplayer and creation tools are also becoming more and more common, but most of the time, it might feel rushed and shallow. Mere numbers used to measure the “greatness” of a game. It would be unwise not to mention Little Big Planet, a game where all kinds of crazy things can happen. This might be one of the most creative games of the last 5 years (that I’ve played at least), and it came as a fresh breeze to one of the oldest game genres of all times. However, that by itself isn’t as impressive as what became of it, with support from thousands of players worldwide creating content for it and therefore it came the be one of the most creativity inducing games I know. The funny thing here is, it’s not really the game that’s awesome, but what we players make from it. In a recent post, people discussed the importance of small developers to the market and I would say huge. With online stores like the AppStore or XBLA and PSN “anyone” can release a game, and what really separates those is how different they feel and how unique they are. An easy way to look at it is just think about how many “artistic” titles we can find on those places, games like Journey, Flower or Sword & Sorcery (iOS) are most definitely a “work of art” and that’s an “easy” way to make a statement of each game’s uniqueness. We’re going though stale waters and I really believe it’s time to stir things up. The small fishes can only do so much to move this giant boat. We should rely on the big developers to turn on their engines and venture into unknown waters. Instead, they seem to prefer keeping their big whales in captivity and extracting every single ounce of Ambergris from them (those who like Futurama should understand). I guess we should ask ourselves, is it worth the risk? I can tell you for sure it does, if it wasn’t for brave men who would cross the oceans looking for the unknown, we might not be here today (this ends my navigation metaphor). So, my friends, I’ll ask again, what is the most innovative game you’ve seen lately? All I can tell you is I have no idea and I believe no one does, so I invite you to discuss this question (and this overly inquiring article) here and we might even come to a conclusion (though I very much doubt it). I’ll leave you to the following thought: true innovation might be gone but imagination has always been (and will always be) the gamers most important resource when experiencing a game, so at least as long as we can hold on to it, we will always have something new and fresh to look for.

See the original post here: 
Is There a Place Left for Innovation ?