Rock Band Offers Three Doors Down, Mute Math Next Week
Written by from on March 12th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIn addition to the Lady Gaga DLC that was announced earlier this week, Harmonix has revealed four more Rock Band tracks scheduled to become available next week. Songs by Three Doors Down, Mute Math, and The Subways are all queued up for the Rock Band music store next Tuesday, May 16 on Xbox 360 and Wii, with a PlayStation 3 release planned for Thursday, May 18. The developers have also posted a list of all the latest songs that were added to the Xbox 360’s Rock Band Network store over the last week. The grand total for the platform’s second week: 23 new tracks, including downloads from Flight of the Conchords, Jonathan Coulton, The Shins, and many others. The Lady Gaga four-pack will cost you $6.99 (560 Microsoft points) on Xbox 360 and PS3. Individual tracks are all going for the standard $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points). Price varies on the Rock Band Network DLC, but it ranges between $1 (80 Microsoft points), $2 (160 Microsoft points), and $3 (240 Microsoft points) per track.
Torchlight Headed for Consoles Soon?
Written by from on March 12th, 2010 | 0 CommentsTorchlight was the toast of the dungeon-crawling crowd when it released on PC last year, but what if your rig just doesn’t cut the mustard? No worries — word on the street suggests Runic Games’ debut could be headed to a console near you. Game Informer first picked up on a quote from Runic CEO Max Schaefer, who recently showed up on The Rumble Pack podcast. “We’re going to put some serious effort into it — pretty quick — getting Torchlight onto consoles,” Schaefer confessed on The Rumble Pack. Nothing’s official just yet, but Schaefer did mention that they’re talking with multiple publishing partners to help make Torchlight on consoles a reality. Whether he means a full retail package or a Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network release remains to be seen, but we’ll keep you updated as more announcements are made.
How Shank Is An Ultraviolent Cartoon That Animation Fans Should Pay Attention To
Written by from on March 12th, 2010 | 0 CommentsShank “had me at hello” due to its ultra-stylized and violent debut back when it was first announced at PAX. Recently picked up by EA, Klei Entertainment’s endearingly brutal brawler (coming to XBLA, PSN, and PC this summer) has a lot of things going for it. Right off the bat, Shank just feels extremely smooth. With its simple attack commands, you’re able to focus on actually tearing enemies up rather than fumbling around with complicated button presses. You have three basic modes of attack to play with: The namesake shank for quick (yet not extremely powerful) strikes, the slower chainsaw that’s perfect for inflicting lots of pain, and dual pistols that are great for keeping enemies at bay. You’re also given a pounce attack to pin enemies to the ground while you rip at them, as well as the ability to grab foes to make sure they don’t get too far away. To round out your attacks, you’ve got a finite number of grenades to use against some of the tougher goons.
Gabe Newell Teases New Song for Portal 2
Written by from on March 12th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIn an interview with 1UP after accepting the Pioneer Award at tonight’s Game Developers Choice ceremony, Valve’s Gabe Newell offered a few details about his company’s upcoming Portal 2 . When asked if he could provide a piece of trivia about the game that people wouldn’t know, Newell mentioned, “Jonathan Coulton is awesome — he’s just brilliant; he’s a joy to work with,” referring to the songwriter behind the now-famous end credits song in the original Portal . I followed up asking about a new song in the sequel, to which Newell replied, “He’s brilliant.”
ilomilo Is Action-Puzzle Games Cubed
Written by from on March 12th, 2010 | 0 CommentsBack in 1985, Hudson made a game called Binary Land , a puzzle game where you guided a pair of penguin lovers through a maze — at the same time. Simple, clever, and underrated, it was the kind of game typical of the flourishing game design spirit of the early ’80s. ilomilo (EE-low-MEE-low), from Swedish developer Southend Interactive ( R-Type Dimensions , Tecmo Bowl Throwback ), has a similar gameplay concept to it: Get the gumdrop-shaped creatures Ilo and Milo through a path of obstacles in a level so they can meet and be happy (unlike the penguins, though, they’re just friends). And that’s about where the similarities end. ilomilo’s chief advantage over Binary Land is that it’s in 3D, so you’ll be guiding Ilo and Milo up, down, and all around the cube-based platform worlds of the game. And you won’t be controlling them simultaneously. For example, if you get stuck as Ilo, you just push a button to switch to Milo, and have him (her?!) stroll through the level to clear Ilo’s obstacle.
PlayStation Move: Quick Impressions Of What It Can Do
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsOkay, let’s just get both the “personal hygienic massager” and the “Wii HD” comments out of the way. Done. Now, we’ve already covered some of the basics of the upcoming PlayStation Move , and we also checked out a traditional hardcore enthusiast game that supports motion-control functionality. But what about the rest of the initial lineup so far? Sure, Sony had the requisite tech demo that showed off all sorts of Move-specific possibilities, such as a marionette demo, or a “paint the screen” demo, a “wield a club/sword/object” demo, or even a “choose the color of your motion controller’s light.” But besides that tech, Sony also showed a fair number of actual games, and here’s our quick round-up of how they felt after some Move time. In following Sony’s “It can do everything” campaign, here’s a quick question: so what can the PlayStation Move do, after all? Why, it can…
Former Getaway Developer Creates DJ App for iPhone
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIf you’re a DJ looking for something a little more portable (and far cheaper) than your standard issue mixing equipment, then you may want to turn your attention to CUE.PLAY.DJ. . It’s essentially an application for the iPhone or iPod Touch that includes all the basic features you’d need to move some butts onto the dance floor — and it’ll only set you back $9.99. Developer Capsulated Software created the app with assistance from DJ and radio host Ferry Corsten. It supports simultaneous playback of two tracks, automatic track syncing and BPM detection, pitch modification capabilities, looping options, and, of course, a built-in crossfader for switching between tracks. CUE.PLAY.DJ. also includes CUE.PLAY.SETLIST. , a nifty piece of software for the PC or Mac that enables on-the-fly streaming of tracks to and from the mobile app, as well as allowing you to record any particularly tasty grooves on your computer. CUE.PLAY.DJ. is planned for release sometime in April. Following that, creator Max Harvey (formerly of Sony’s Getaway team) and his partners at Capsulated Software will be working on Sequence*R , a “music based action game” for the iPhone and iPod Touch. We’ll keep you posted as more details become available.
MLB 10: The Show Review
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIn videogames, just as in sports, competition’s really the key to success. When you’ve got a rival challenging your every move, you’re simply a lot more motivated to get the job done right. The year-to year competition with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer helped propel EA’s FIFA series to worldwide success as the top footballing sim, while many observers feel that Madden hasn’t shown the same innovation since the NFL 2K franchise bit the dust. Last year, MLB: The Show faced competition in theory, but against a buggy, broken MLB 2K9 — one of the worst baseball releases in history — it wasn’t much of a contest. And that might have lulled Sony into a false sense of security — while MLB 10: The Show is still the baseball sim to beat, the competition’s certainly much closer this year. For example, while I didn’t personally experience any game-breaking bugs in The Show’s franchise mode, some users have reported issues such as randomly completed trades and crashes in specific stadiums. I simmed the first half of my franchise season in order to speed things along and noticed some curious results myself: At the All-Star break, real-life San Francisco Giants ace (and the Cy Young winner two years running) Tim Lincecum stood at 2-10 with an ERA over 5, while underachieving Barry Zito had laughably transformed into the ace of the staff at 10-3, with an ERA well below 3. Maybe The Show just hates Lincecum for gracing the cover of MLB 2K9?
Nexon America Shows Off Latest Round of Free MMORPGs
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsNexon America is preparing to launch their next batch of free MMORPGs in North America, and they showed off two of them during a recent GDC event. Already available in Korea, Dragon Nest and the recently-renamed Vindictus aim to kick subgenre’s visual quality up a notch while offering different gameplay styles. Nexon America vice president Min Kim presented Vindictus — known as Mabinogi Heroes in Korea — first, offering a quick tour of features such as the Source engine and the more action-oriented combat. Nexon is currently distributing Counter-Strike in Asia, and Kim said that relationship helped get them access to Source, which they’ve used it to create an action MMORPG featuring an easily-manipulated environment. “The development team really wanted an engine where you can break everything,” he explained, then demonstrated a sequence in which a foe was smashed into a wall, which took noticeable damage from the impact. Armor and clothing also deteriorate from the wear and tear of battle, eventually falling apart completely.
Green Day: Rock Band Coming June 8
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsHarmonix and MTV Games announced today that Green Day: Rock Band is set for a worldwide release on June 8, 2010. The game features over 47 tracks, including “Brain Stew,” “Jaded,” “Hitchin’ a Ride,” “American Idiot,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” We expect to see a full track list teased in the coming months. It sounds like Harmonix is aiming to take a similar archival approach to The Beatles Rock Band , offering unlockable images and rare videos of interviews and performances. Unlike the Beatles version, however, we apparently won’t be seeing instruments in the style of Green Day’s own. This could be a sign that the days of large instrument bundles may be starting to wane, at least for spin-offs. Instead, the Wii standalone version is the cheapest option at $49.99, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions will be $59.99. As previously reported the game supports song exporting, but it will cost you extra. The “Plus” edition is only for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and costs an extra ten bucks at $69.99. For the money, you get special packaging, the export feature, and access to six Green Day DLC tracks. From the sounds of it, these are the tracks already available on the Rock Band store, but with added visual flair.