Earlier today I had a chance to sit in on a developer call for 2K’s The Darkness II. Digital Extremes’ Sheldon Carter and 2K’s Dan Schmittou answered a variety of questions, including a few of mine, discussing the game mechanics, co-operative play, Jackie’s quad-wielding ability, and the comic book inspired art direction for the sequel, which hits shelves next week.
Since I always enjoy listening to the people who make games discuss their work, you can catch the full audio recording of the discussion below, which runs about fifty minutes.
Posted: February 3, 2012 at 7:39 pm
By Jamie Love |
VVVVVV creator, Terry Cavanagh has offered a curious distraction recently with ChatChat, which has replaced my daily requirement of cat memes by giving me the opportunity to live and play as a cat in a free-to-play space with others, all within my browser window. The ready availability makes it easy to push work aside and return to find a little more each time.
It all begins with naming yourself, and being assigned a random cat color while materializing at the doorstep of a house that has no entrance, but does provide a doormat where you can place the trophy mice found throughout the single map.
I’d only just started exploring the different areas when another cat ran up and asked me to follow, leading me through one of the game’s secret passages that hid a series of piano keys – the other cat began walking over them to produce notes while I purred approvingly, having already learned that typing /purr would produce the imagined action. You can also try /meow, /nap, and /screech.
Today’s cat adventure revolved entirely around the matter of dogs – being bit by one had the curious effect of turning me into one. Biting another cat or leaving a mouse offering on the doorstep returned me to cat form, and wanting to get to the bottom of this dog business led me to a hidden dog statue where players were making mice offerings in order to become dogs – strange religious animal activities are afoot.
The game’s only instruction is “be a cat”, and as you might have guessed, it’s a very strange bit of business being a cat in this space. Naturally, that’s all the excuse I need to recommend you check it out via this handy link.
Posted: February 2, 2012 at 8:35 pm
By Jamie Love |
Warner Bros. Interactive sent around new video for Grasshopper’s Lollipop Chainsaw, teasing a set of character skins for the zombie slaying heroine that includes Ash’s signature style from the Evil Dead series. Before you get too excited however, it’s important to mention that the Tsars of fashion have pieced the five available skins out as pre-order bonuses, complicating your retail decision making.
Remember kids, don’t shoot the messenger.
Pinup Juliet belongs to pre-orders placed with Amazon, while Best Buy has the Goth Girl and Foxy Funk attire. Evil Dead fans will have to hit up GameStop for a chance to carry Ash’s infamous boomstick on their back – GameStop PoweUp Rewards members will also sport fashion from Mindless Self Indulgence’s Jimmy Urine, who also happens to be contributing music along with playing one of the boss characters.
Not sure what to wear? Catch a look inside Juliet’s extended closet below.
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Posted: February 2, 2012 at 12:57 pm
By Jamie Love |
PlayStation 3 owners have been waiting quite a while for their dose of apocalyptic vehicular combat, and a demo for the latest entry in one of Sony’s legacy franchises hit the PlayStation Network yesterday. At around 1.5gbs, I didn’t get a chance to sample the offering until today, wherein it took a few rounds to get my driving confidence back. As one might expect, the return of Sweet Tooth aims to deliver a larger, louder, and entirely more chaotic experience over previous titles in the series. The sample stage doesn’t disappoint, but getting a handle on the controls gave me plenty more to appreciate.
The demo offers a quick bit of driver training that walks players through the speed boosts, turbo boosts, reverse driving options and primary and secondary fire abilities that give a fighting chance to survive the mean streets of Twisted Metal – as well as a chance to feel how agile and responsive different rides can handle.
The nature of car combat has always been like jousting knights – you can charge at one another with guns blazing, and should you both survive, there’s an awkward moment of turning and adjustment to take another run at burying each other – or the often easier option of continuing forward to fire on the next available target. Twisted Metal’s option of pressing X and jamming the analog stick to spin around on a dime goes a long way in allowing the joust to evolve into one-on-one grudge encounters worth a sonnet every now and then.
Being able to keep track of special weapons while spinning through the anarchy requires greater skill, which I’m still working on. But in the meantime, dropping mines to trip someone up before flipping around to jam the car into reverse and fire off a missile barrage is delightful, and as you may have guessed by now, I definitely recommend sampling the chaos for yourself before the full game hits on Valentine’s Day.
Posted: February 1, 2012 at 9:43 pm
By Jamie Love |
Some of you may remember that the people who brought you Scribblenauts also harbored aspirations of delivering a fresh action shooter experience, via a work-in-progress named Hybrid. Though news has been awfully quiet on that front for awhile, 5th Cell has seen fit to unleash fresh video, which pegs the game for a 2012 release on Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Hybrid may be hard-pressed to surprise players in the visual department, but this latest glimpse offers something potentially interesting, with the apparent ability to shift your footing along with your perspective, which at the moment is reminding me quite a bit of Capcom’s Dark Void – specifically, the most interesting bit of Dark Void.
That cursed reference aside, catch a peek at Hybrid for yourself below.
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Posted: January 31, 2012 at 4:42 pm
By Jamie Love |
A brief taste of the co-op minded end of Starbreeze’s FPS has arrived on Xbox LIVE, and my understanding is that PlayStation Network users will have their share of it later tonight. The habit around here is to sample a demo and report back with our findings, but I’m thinking that most of you are familiar enough with the concept of shooting masked soldiers in the face with automatic weapons.
The four-player mission gives the opportunity to raid a corporate compound, choosing between an offensive or support role. Going with support started me off with a sniper rifle and a chance to score plenty of headshots, which my character was quite fond of shouting about. I’m not sure there’s anything here that will rock the foundations of the shooter world at present, but weapons “feel” good whilst filling less-than intelligent enemies with bullets, and bailing out comrades by healing their wounds might serve as your good deed of the week.
At no extra charge, each playthrough will treat you to the trailer, with music that supports EA’s agenda of having lots of soundtracks this year that go “WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB”.
As always, check the demo out and let me know what you think.
Posted: January 31, 2012 at 2:44 pm
By Jamie Love |
Capcom has sent word that Dragon’s Dogma, their upcoming fantasy action title for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will be laced with enticing zombie demo bait, offering early access to a demo for Resident Evil 6, well ahead of that title’s November 20th release.
The redeemable token will allow those that purchase Dragon’s Dogma for Xbox 360 to sample RE6 on July 3rd, which Capcom notes as 60 days earlier than any other platform – PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until September 4th. Keep in mind that there’s no sense of just how much meat is on that demo bone at present.
This naturally raises many questions, including whether we should be interested in Dragon’s Dogma, which hits shelves in North America on May 22nd.
Posted: January 31, 2012 at 11:53 am
By Jamie Love |