Torchlight 2 | Review

By: Christopher Brimmer
Posted: September 29, 2012

Torchlight II takes you back to the quirky, fast-paced world of bloodthirsty monsters, bountiful treasures, and sinister secrets - stepping up to give fans of the action RPG genre what they've been longing for!

It’s been a good second half of 2012 for the action RPG genre. We've slain El Diablo for a third time, ventured through the wastelands in search of a second Vault, and now it's time to come back to the lands of Torchlight. Instead of comparing Torchlight II to these other offerings, I'll spend my time here telling you what the developers at Runic really got right and the reasons why you should check this game out.

Watch Dishonored's Tales from Dunwall Webseries

 

Arkane Studios has created a three-part webseries, called Tales from Dunwall, prequeling its upcomming title Deshonored. The vignettes detail the backstory behind Dishonored's characters, technology and setting -- an alternate universe similar to industrial revolution London, known as Dunwall. Click "Read More" to watch all three!

Flood in New Halo 4 Screenshot

A new screenshot of three Flood infected Spartan 4’s has been spreading through the interwebs lately. According to computerandvideogames.com and 343 Industries, the image is of the new multiplayer gametype ‘Flood’ rather than the campaign, which 343 has stated will not contain the parasitic aliens.

The gametype ‘Flood’, will be very similar to previous Halo’s ‘Infection’, where two infected players face off against eight normal Spartans; each kill turns the defeated player into the infected until either all players are zombified or the timer runs out. Other than the cosmetic changes in appearance, the only real change in the two game variations may be in the form of weaponry – seeing as how the Flood in the screenshot do not appear to be carrying the titular Halo Energy Sword.

Kirby's Dream Collection | Review

By: Ryan Seiler
Posted: September 25, 2012

Twenty years ago, Masahiro Sakurai and HAL Laboratory released Kirby’s Dreamland for the original GameBoy. Meant for first-time players of action games, Kirby was designed to be easily accessible, not to mention likable, for gamers of all ages. You can’t get much more approachable than a pink squishy ball with a face. With its unique, simple, fast paced gameplay and stellar platforming, the little goo-ball sparked a franchise still thriving to this very day.

Snapshot | Review

By: Ryan Seiler
Posted: September 19, 2012

Hipsters – those scarf wearing, acoustic guitar playing, Polaroid toting snobs – have had a long history of taking pointless photographs. (No one cares what your Alice Springs Chicken looks like, no matter how many filters you put over it!) Strangely, for all their non-conformist, look-how-unique-I-am attitude, they’re carbon-based mammals, save the thick rimmed glasses. Luckily, Snapshot allows them to live out their wildest fantasies of being a robot with equally terrible taste in photography.  Ironically, though, as of now, Snapshot is only available on PC; which is a little like putting someone’s diabetes medication at the opposite end of an obstacle course. Better luck next time hipsters!

Nintendo Wii U Launch Details Announced

At Nintendo’s Wii U preview event, Nintendo of America’s COO Reggie Fils-Aime announced that the upcoming console will be released November 18 in America. Fils-Aime also announced two different bundle packages the Wii U will be sold in.

Terraria Coming to Consoles Q1 2013

Terraria, the hugely successful platformer/monster slayer/world builder, is finally coming to the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Originally brought to PC by its developer Re-Logic, Terraria is being ported to consoles by Dutch company Engine Software, with production from 505 Games.

Buy Pokémon Back or White 2 within First Month, get Genesect Free

In a recent press release, Nintendo outlined its plans to reward early purchasers of Pokémon Black and White Version 2 with free DLC.  For those lucky enough to play between October 7 and November 12, the “mythical” bug/steel Pokémon Genesect will be available free for download on the DSi eShop. (Even if it looks less “steel” or “bug” and more like a mix between Scyther, Wario’s convertible and a tank.)

Newell: I'd Rather See Valve "Disintegrate" than Fall into EA's Hands

Gabe Newell, Managing Director of Valve, made it quite clear recently that he’d rather see his company “disintegrate” than be absorbed into a larger company that would scavenge it for resources. In an interview with The New York Times, Newell stated, “It’s way more likely we would [let Valve go bankrupt] than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate."

Otakon 2012 Cosplay Gallery

Otakon, short for Otaku Convention, is an annual event celebrating video games, manga, anime and their respective fandom. Held in Baltimore, it's the largest cosplay centered convention on the east coast, boasting over 30,000 attendees in 2012 alone.

Here are just a few of this year's highlights. Enjoy!

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Announced

Kojima Productions has announced the next entry in the over 25 year-long Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. This marks the first new entry in Solid Snake’s storyline since 2008. In the game’s impressive first trailer, we find Snake back to his stealthy ways, infiltrating an enemy stronghold. The clip doesn’t suppress its Metal Gear’y goodness either. From Snake’s communications through his headset to the fact that it’s an 11-minute teaser, you know this is a full-fledged sequel Kojima has in the works.

Cave Story 3D | Review

By: Ryan Seiler
Posted: September 9, 2012

Indie games have become an integral part of the gaming industry. It’s where up-and-coming developers show the world what they’re made of, and an increasingly more profitable career choice to boot. But it didn’t start out that way. It started with basement programmers building the games they wanted to play, floppy disks being sold to friends, and very small audiences. Nowadays we have a little something called the internet, where someone in Moscow can play a game made by a developer based out of a hut in the Amazon. It’s the future man! Yet back in 2004, indies were still struggling to gain a foothold in the industry, no consoles supported small downloadable games, and releasing one as a stand-alone disc copy would only get you as far as the bargain bin. Luckily PC’s were there for small developers, allowing anyone with internet access to not only be informed about small titles but download and play them as well.

One, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, fan of classic platformers like Metroid, Castlevania, and Blaster Master, in a move that would make indie movie and music snobs cream their pants, designed, composed, and programmed Cave Story, by himself and distributed it for free online. In a time where ‘free’ and ‘download’ meant small flash game, Cave Story, as vast in scope and design as The Legend of Zelda and Super Metroid, was ahead of its time, creating a massive cult fan-base, heralding a time when a little guy like Sudio Pixel could compete with the big boys like EA and Activision. There’s no question about it, Cave Story is a stellar example of not just what an indie game can accomplish, but what video games as a whole can accomplish.

Studio Pixel’s modest platformer has been given two makeovers since its release. The first, developed by Nicalis, remade the 16-bit style of the original and upgraded to a more recent – yet dated -- 32-bit appearance for the Wii eShop, leaving literally everything else about the game unchanged. In 2011 Nicalis with the help of NIS America decided that Cave Story needed a true modern overhaul. Thus Cave Story 3D for the Nintendo 3DS was developed, giving the classic 2004 version a new 3D coat of paint. Buy hey; if that paint has cracks, the whole house looks ugly.

3DS Mutant Mudds to get PC Levels for Free

When Mutant Mudds was ported over to the PC, it featured 20 additional levels not included in the original 3DS version. While it’s in no way uncommon for a developer to sweeten the deal on a game already released on another console, it is uncommon for the older version to receive the same attention. Luckily for 3DS owners of the game, Renegade Kid, the developer behind Mutant Mudds, is releasing the 20 Grannie levels for free through the 3DS eShop, according to the company’s co-founder Jools Watsham.

Killzone Trilogy Announced - to Release in October

Combine Nazis, Communists and Space Marines, and what do you have? A successful franchise, that’s what! Killzone and its sequels are getting their very own combo pack, much the same way SONY has re-released other well-known franchises like Uncharted and Resistance. The original Killzone will be presented in HD for the first time ever and Killzone 2 and 3 will include multiplayer support. The PSP title Killzone: Liberation, however, will not be included.

New Halo 4 ViDoc Reveals Story Spoilers

The new Halo 4 video, A Hero Awakens which documents the game’s progress, appears to contain a slew of spoilers. The nearly eleven minute trailer contains multiple shots of key story moments as well as images of yet untold characters. The icing on the cake for spoiler hounds is a shot of a mocap script detailing a pivotal, maybe even climactic scene, revealing the game’s antagonist; a fact that has been a closely guarded secret, only known by the phrase “an ancient evil” until now.

Valve "Jumping In" to Hardware Market?

Not too long ago, rumors of a “Steambox” started to appear at various outlets online. While a Steam based console would revolutionize console gaming as we know it, though, eliminating the need for physical copies of software, as Steam has done with PC gaming, would represent an enormous gamble and undertaking for any business. These rumors dissipated with time, but may have had a bit of truth to them after all. Valve recently posted a job opening for an industrial designer; the same title employees at Microsoft filled when designing the Xbox 360.

Prehistoric Isle in 1930 | Déjà-Review

By: Ryan Seiler
Posted: September 3, 2012

The Bermuda Triangle, that ominous space off Florida’s coast, has claimed thousands of pilots and seamen’s lives. Why? Could it be that the hurricane-prone area is where dozens of sea and air routes intersect; thus creating a long list of coincidences due to the sheer number of vehicles and storms in the area? Of course not! It’s dinosaurs, I tell ya’!

SNK, the developer behind the Neo-Geo -- which coincidentally caused its own list of plane and ship wrecks due to its massive cartridges – was first and foremost an arcade developer in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Among these titles were such classics as Metal Slug, Samurai Showdown  and Fatal Fury. Yet buried deep inside the collection, and probably hidden in the far reaches of arcades, was the little known Prehistoric Isle in 1930.

Darksiders 2 | Review

By: Christopher Brimmer

Posted: September 1, 2012

My son loved the original Darksiders so when he heard that there was a sequel being made, he went bezonkers and begged me to pick up a copy. I reminded him that last time around, the PC controls were atrocious and it was a sloppy port from the console. He explained that this time it’d be completely different.While the PC controls stayed relatively abysmal, the game itself kept bringing a certain phrase to mind, "If it aint' broke, don't fix it!"