PSN will become Sony Network Entertainment this TuesdayPosted on Sunday February 5th, 2012 at 11:11pm by Destructoid
On Tuesday 7, 2012, the PlayStation Network shall cease to be, and Sony Network Entertainment International will stand in its place. Existing PSN members are receiving emails informing them that their terms of service are about to change in the wake of this alteration. Sony says the rebranding will not apply to the PSP "at this time." I guess Sony's already planning to bail out on that system completely with the PS Vita on the horizon. We've known that the PSN was to be folded into the SNEI for a while, but it's been months since we last heard anything. Sony says the only thing that'll really change for users is the name. The online services -- and your associated login details -- will remain the same, but you'll have to get used to calling it something else. I'm just going to start calling it Colin. Tracks from Bush's Sixteen Stone headed to Rock BandPosted on Saturday February 4th, 2012 at 7:07am by Destructoid
Now, I'm not a super-huge fan of Bush. I don't even know if those exist anymore. If so, it is probably one of those things beautiful to behold on account of their scarcity, like finding a unicorn in a forest glade on a dewy morn. All that said, Sixteen Stone is a damn fine piece of grungy pop-rock and, next week, three tracks of the more popular tracks from the album will be hitting the Rock Band store. You too can rock out like it's 1994 all over again with "Comedown," "Machinehead" and "Everything Zen" when they release on February 7 individually or as part of "Bush Pack 01" for a slight discount. You guys probably know how this works by now. Aliens: Colonial Marines graces us with gameplay footagePosted on Saturday February 4th, 2012 at 6:06am by Destructoid
Here's a new trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines, this time sporting some actual gameplay footage as opposed to CGI. There are plenty of hissing xenomorphs and screaming marines, which is exactly how the universe should be balanced. This trailer would excite me, except for one thing -- none of this footage is new. Everything in this video has been taken from the demo level shown at last year's E3 (and later shown at PAX). After such a long time, I was really hoping to see something new. The fact that a single ten minutes of polished gameplay has been revealed since the game was announced makes me nervous. In any case, my Alien fanboyism is still keeping me super stoked, and I hope Gearbox knocks it out of the park. It's got to be better than AvP was. Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends gearing up for springPosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 4:04pm by Destructoid
The Ferrari fanatics in attendance will want to keep an eye on Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends. The game revolves around this single brand and is due out on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in spring 2012. What got me to take a serious look was finding out who's developing it: Slightly Mad Studios. Formula 1, GT, and rally will all be covered in Ferrari Racing Legends, and you can expect to see approximately 50 cars and 36 tracks. This might be a cool way to go through the history of Ferrari, but I'm always one to appreciate variety. Hit the gallery for some car porn.
Madden NFL 13 cover opened up to 64-player fan votePosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 2:02pm by Destructoid
2011 was the second year in a row in which EA Sports let fans choose the Madden NFL cover athlete, and the people voted 13 million times to whittle down a field of 32 options to put Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden NFL 12. This time, EA is expanding the voting to a group of 64, bringing in two choices from each of the 32 NFL teams. The first round will serve as a team-by-team popularity contest to determine the one nominee per team that fans want on the box. THQ blames $56 million loss on uDrawPosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 1:01pm by Destructoid
Things aren't great over at THQ. We recently told you how they were in danger of being delisted, and soon after we learned that 240 employees were to be laid off in a restructuring. The situation is bad enough that the THQ president, Brian Farrell, took a 50 percent salary cut for the next year. They've now announced a $56 million loss for the quarter ending December 31, and they blame it all on the failure of their uDraw tablet and its planned expansion to the Xbox 360 and PS3. According to Farrell, there's over a million uDraw units still in inventory, leading to $100 million in lost revenue. Of course, the plug has been pulled on the uDraw tablet program after all of this. "We were looking at uDraw as a bridge to this core and digital future, and that bridge turned out to be a plank that we walked off of," said Farrell to Gamasutra. It's a shame, as the uDraw is a neat device, and has lots of possibilities for gaming. Here's the arcade opening for Persona 4: The UltimatePosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 1:01pm by Destructoid
Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena's opening movie was posted on Atlus' YouTube channel today. It's not much more than the Persona characters being announced and posing, so don't get too excited. Teddy does look like a badass on the main stage, and the music is great, so you can at least enjoy that. Rise? Persona 4: The Ultimate is coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime this summer. I predict that I'm going to suck at this game, but will continue playing it anyway. Review: The Simpsons Arcade GamePosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 12:12pm by Destructoid
Any gamer of a certain age will be able to bore you extensively talking about two particular arcade games: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons. The classic TMNT game arrived on Xbox Live Arcade years ago, but as with many licensed arcade games, it seemed unlikely we'd ever see The Simpsons hit a digital platform. Sometimes, however, the legal red tape can be cut through, and nostalgia wins the day. The Simpsons Arcade is back, and gamers of a certain age can once again bore the world.
The Simpsons Arcade Game (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade [reviewed]) The Simpsons Arcade first hit bowling alleys and leisure centers in 1991, back before the TV show got legitimately funny. The highly contrived plot sees Maggie replace her pacifier with a diamond, which Waylon Smithers is trying to steal for Mr. Burns because of reasons. Rather than remove the diamond, Smithers decides to steal an entire baby, prompting the rest of the Simpsons clan to give chase. Part of the joy of The Simpsons Arcade is in just how ridiculous it is. When we were children, nobody considered the implications of a bespectacled man (wearing an inexplicable cape) joyfully kidnapping a child, or the randomness of Mr. Burns having an entire army of goons that try to kill a whole family -- including an eight-year-old girl -- for want of a diamond that he could likely have easily afforded. In fact, with the amount of money he wasted on trying to actively murder one of his employees, Mr. Burns could have bought the diamond outright for a lot less. Not to mention the fact that both Smithers and Mr. Burns sound like Peter Lorre as opposed to themselves. Oh, and Marge's weapon -- a vacuum cleaner -- looks woefully sexist in a modern light. It's a true highlight of this game to examine just how insane it actually is, despite us all taking it for granted back in the day.
Using the same engine as TMNT, Konami's classic coin guzzler is a straightforward, simplistic beat-em-up, and some players may be surprised by just how rudimentary the action is. Playing as either Bart, Lisa, Homer or Marge (who is still the best character, thanks to the reach of her vacuum), the only real commands are walking, jumping, and hitting. Pressing jump followed by attack creates a diagonal kick, while pressing the two buttons together causes a more powerful maneuver. There are also rare weapon drops, such as a slingshot or bowling ball, and a few trash cans to pick up and fling, but otherwise the eight stages consist of walking, punching, and getting punched a lot. It almost seems redundant to say that a twenty-year-old game has aged, but it's a warning players need to be reminded of. This was a game designed around killing the player as cheaply as possible in order for an arcade machine to grow fat on quarters, so the simplistic combat is married to frustratingly overwhelming odds that were designed to test patience and pockets instead of skill. To counteract this on a console, Konami has allowed players to customize their own virtual credits. The default is forty, which is more than enough to beat the game, and a team of players can either share a single credit pool or have their own. There are also difficulty settings and a one-life survival mode, and a stage select screen is added as new levels are unlocked. Other extras include sound tests and character screens, as well as the ability to unlock a Japanese ROM of the game once the American version has been beaten. There are also options to smooth over the traditionally blocky graphics and toggle the screen size, though I much prefer the defaults. The game is nicely presented in a virtual arcade cabinet, which looks better than the screenshots in this review imply, and you can choose to remove it if you wish. Once you add online play and leaderboards into the mix, you've gotten a definitive version of a game still beloved by many gamers who fondly remember it.
Fondly remembering The Simpsons Arcade is the caveat, though, as nostalgia is a key component to enjoyment. Objectively, by today's standards, The Simpsons Arcade is not very good. It's a brainless button-masher that is beaten through sheer attrition, and is so numbingly repetitive that one's thumb will feel arthritic despite the incredibly short length. To anybody playing this game for the first time, it's not going to be looked upon favorably in the least. However, Konami didn't release it for people new to the game. This is for those who lost their pocket money trying to get past that infuriating Krusty balloon, who made it all the way to Smithers before being obliterated by one of his thousand bombs, and who still remember Princess Kashmir as a legitimate Simpsons reference. For them, this is a loving HD re-release of a game that's very dear to their hearts. For such people, playing The Simpsons Arcade is a joy that no amount of aging can quite take away.
Twisted Metal delayed and censored in EuropePosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 11:11am by Destructoid
Twisted Metal is suffering a few localization problems, resulting in the car-on-car violence being delayed in Europe. The game is now due out in March for PAL gamers, although a solid release date is yet to be confirmed. In North America, the game is still slated for February 14 and there shouldn't be any problems making the date. As well as the delay, the European version of Twisted Metal has been slightly censored by SCEE. David Jaffe says that most of the edits are in cutscenes and won't affect the actual gameplay. The biggest in-game change is that the screaming person tied to a gurney on the Meat Wagon is now a lifeless corpse. Well, that's a shame. [Via NeoGAF] Journey is finally done, waiting on release datePosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 9:09am by Destructoid
that gamecompany's President, Kellee Santiago, says that the beautiful "online parable" Journey is finally done, meaning that the development process is officially finished. According to JeuxFrance, they're just waiting on a release date now. The latest date we've heard is "Spring." I can't wait to get my hands on this game. It's like moving, interactive artwork. A story without words. A study of life through game. Man, I've got to stop before I get all douchebag and turn people off from this indie gem. Review: SoulCalibur VPosted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 8:08am by Destructoid
Sex, souls, and swords; it’s hard not to find one of these pressed in your face during a heated SoulCalibur V battle, or at the very least when gazing upon the game’s Japanese marketing.
SoulCalibur V (PlayStation 3 [reviewed], Xbox 360)
Metro: Last Light delayed to 2013Posted on Friday February 3rd, 2012 at 7:07am by Destructoid
Metro: Last Light has slipped to a 2013 release date, according to THQ's latest release schedule. The Metro 2033 sequel is slated for first quarter -- sometime between the beginning of January and the end of March. With people expecting this generation to wrap up soon, every delay's starting to really cut it close. Still, there's nothing wrong with a developer getting extra time to polish a game, and hopefully this will make the already promising Last Light a far better experience. Now I shall wait impatiently for another chance to shoot bipedal rat mutants in their warty faces. Metro: Last Light delayed to 2013 [CVG]
'Epic Quest' brings XP and loot to Pinball FX 2Posted on Thursday February 2nd, 2012 at 2:02pm by Destructoid
"Epic Quest" is next for Zen Studios, and it sounds effing awesome. It's an add-on table coming to Pinball FX 2 (Xbox 360) and Zen Pinball (PlayStation 3, Android, and iOS) this February complete with persistent loot and experience points. This is one of the few tables outside of those based on Marvel properties that genuinely interests me. Zen Studios VP of marketing and PR Mel Kirk sums it up: "With a wink and a nudge towards classic RPG tropes, Epic Quest blends frantic pinball action, obsessive character building, and liberally applied tongue-in-cheek humor." If for whatever reason you can't watch the trailer, Zen has provided us with more than enough screenshots.
PSN to get first Call of Duty Elite maps on February 28Posted on Thursday February 2nd, 2012 at 12:12pm by Destructoid
Premium Call of Duty Elite members on Xbox Live have had access to the first two Modern Warfare 3 maps of the Content Season for more than a week now. Today, Activision has announced when "Liberation" and "Piazza" will make it to PlayStation Network: February 28. That's unfortunate. If I were a premium subscriber, it'd be to get this early access to downloadable content, not to see stat-tracking or anything else being offered. For some of you, it's not a hypothetical situation. Is this enough to make you cancel your membership? Review: Yakuza: Dead SoulsPosted on Thursday February 2nd, 2012 at 12:12pm by Destructoid
What a great idea: Take the gangsters you know and love from the Yakuza series and put them up against zombies, quarantining them in Tokyo's red-light district. Oh, and give them guns. Lots of guns with unlimited ammo. We've seen zombie sandbox games before, but this is the only one where you can take a break to sing karaoke and drink with sexy (non-undead) girls of the night. But is that good enough to make you want to play another zombie game?
Yakuza: Dead Souls (PlayStation 3) Dead Souls takes many of the series' settings and several of the recurring characters and puts them in a zombie story that does more to serve Yakuza fans than it does fans of zombie sandbox games. This is great for those who have enjoyed the past several Yakuza games, as this title serves as a sort of all-star fantasy side mission. Fans will dig seeing series star Kazuma Kiryu, Yakuza 4's Shun Akiyama, crazy eye patch guy Goro Majima and the machine gun-armed Ryuji Goda working together to push back the zombie invasion. Unfortunately, these characters will do next to nothing for those new to the series. While no prior knowledge of the series is required to enjoy Dead Souls, only series fans will pick up on some of the story's finer points. That said, this is a zombie game -- how much story does there need to be? Surprisingly, the narrative is pretty good. Those expecting another Resident Evil outbreak are going to be surprised by the story-heavy gangster turf war plot. There's a nice blend of the serious gangster scowls and revenge talk with more lighthearted and silly situations to make for one of the series' most enjoyable tales. Some of the situations are flat-out hilarious, showing us that the developers wanted to take this opportunity to have a bit of fun. Those looking for dark corridors with scares aren't going to find it here, as this is not a survival horror. Instead, Dead Souls follows four badasses and their journey to take back Tokyo's red-light district, and it's all done in that very satisfying Japanese action movie sort of way.
The gameplay in Dead Souls will be a bit of a departure for Yakuza series fans as the game centers around gun play. Sure, there's a bit of kicking and punching going on, but you'll quickly find that fists don't do much against the undead. The only way to get anywhere in Kamurocho these days is to mow through the hordes of zombies with a shotgun or two. If you're expecting to revisit the kick-and-punch brawling of past games, this is the wrong game for you -- there's next to none of that. The good news here is that there is a nice selection of guns and other weapons (tanks! forklifts!) to take down the undead with. Each of the game's four main characters has a different type of gun style assigned to them, and the blend of the four goes a long way toward keeping the zombie shooting action fresh. While Kiryu kicks it old school with a single pistol, Akiyama dual wields pistols, Majima has a super-powered shotgun, and Goda has a Gatling gun for an arm. You're free to buy and equip other guns, and all weapons are open to upgrading to increase power, ammo limit, and more. Characters' fighting abilities are also upgradeable through Soul Points, which are earned via battles and leveling. These points can be dumped into abilities that improve everything from hand-to-hand combat to weapon strength, keeping in tradition with the series' action-RPG systems. It's nice to see another tradition -- using items from the environment in fights -- continues in Dead Souls. Like in past games, you can put the hurt on enemies with anything laying around, so charging into a crowd swinging a bicycle is still possible, and still lots of fun. This time around they take this even further with new environmental options for zombie killing. Using the chainsaw to cut off zombie heads is as satisfying as you'd imagine, and the flamethrower has to be a zombie-game classic by now. I really enjoyed using a baseball pitching machine to pop the undead in their heads, and liked it even more when I found you could load it with grenades instead of balls.
The game's Heat Snipe mechanic also takes advantage of the environment, and it makes taking down the undead a bit easier. Once its gauge is filled from killing zombies, you will be able to execute a special attack that will make an impossible shot possible. Imagine being able to snipe a thin gas line running along a wall to have it explode and take out dozens of zombies, or hitting the gas tank of a downed motorcycle. Good stuff. Unfortunately, while shooting down waves of zombies starts out fun, the appeal wears thin quickly. While the game does its best to mix the action up with four different characters and their varied gun types, it's not enough to keep the zombie killing fresh. Much of the problem lies in how aiming works -- and how it's not necessary. Gun play uses a third-person view, letting you hold down the left shoulder button to aim and strafe while firing. You need only to face the direction of zombies to hit them, with no proper aiming required. While you're free to pull up a crosshair to fine-tune your aim for a headshot, it's simply not necessary, as mashing on the right shoulder button a few times kills just about anything with way less effort. Worse yet, simply running around outside of aim mode while firing has shots locked onto nearby zombies, with your gun automatically turning to face the nearest enemy, almost completely removing any challenge. While you can entertain yourself for a bit striving for shot accuracy, or working to rack up a headshot record, the reality is that you only need to mash on the fire button repeatedly to progress. This is potentially good news for those that aren't great at shooters, but I feel that even these individuals would feel disappointed at how easy kills come in Dead Souls. The only exceptions to the mindless fire-button pushing and lack of variety come during boss battles, most of which feature massive beasts that require skill and proper aim to take down. These bosses were a welcome change from the zombie hordes, since there are movement patterns and weak points that actually require thinking to overcome. It's a shame there's only a handful of these situations.
For my money, the Yakuza series sidequests and diversions make any of the titles worth the price of entry. There's plenty of opportunities to screw around in Dead Souls, though you'll find that they're a bit less prominent this time around, especially when you consider that Tokyo is going to shit all around you while you're flirting with hostess club girls. You can still go shopping, try your hand at casino gambling, hit karaoke joints, or simply wander around town enjoying the sights, just like you could in other titles. I got lost in a pachinko trance that lasted nearly two hours, and I'm still not sure if I won or lost. There's also plenty of off-the-wall sidequests that range from simple item-fetch assignments to escort missions. The quality varies, but there's definitely some good ones in the mix. One of my favorites involved mob bosses and cross dressing, so there's something to look forward to. While the core story gives about 15 solid hours of gameplay, the sidequests and auxiliary entertainment could easily double that number. Dead Souls sits in a strange middle zone, stuck somewhere between the past Yakuza series games and the tired zombie sandbox genre. While fans will surely enjoy seeing series stars in this zombie apocalypse setting, they could miss some of the classic Yakuza pacing and gameplay. Zombie game fans will enjoy the varied killing options, but could be disappointed at the lack of challenge when it comes to gun play. Still, there's enough here to warrant a purchase between the solid story and characters and the ample options to goof off. If you try not to think too hard and approach Yakuza: Dead Souls with a B-movies in mind, you'll likely come away entertained.
- Lollipop Chainsaw pre-order bonus include Evil Dead skin - RE6 demo a timed exclusive to Xbox 360 due to 'business' - The Simpsons Arcade Game hits XBLA and PSN soon - Come duke it out at Capcom's Fight Club tomorrow - Get your Starhawk beta code here! - Review: Zack Zero - Gotham City Impostors due out next week - Syndicate's Dart 6 allows you to grief your enemies - Syndicate will NOT be using an online pass - Creator of Lodoss War to write Dragon's Dogma tie-in - Jimmy Urine doing music, voiceover for Lollipop Chainsaw - Darksiders prequel novel and lore bible incoming - Dragon's Dogma gets a story trailer full of dragons - King of Fighters XIII gets a patch and a price reduction - Live show: Mash Tactics lives forever with NeverDead |
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