PS Vita UK launch 'will miss Xmas'

PS Vita UK launch 'will miss Xmas': "But handheld could hit US this year, CVG understands.


Sony's PlayStation Vita won't launch in the UK until 2011, CVG can reveal.



Click here to read the full article"

Review: Shadows of the Damned

Review: Shadows of the Damned: "

A demon with a goat's head is riding a horse that defecates pure darkness. Then the demon eats the horse's heart, grows to the size of a ten-story building, eats the rest of the horse and proceeds to urinate more darkness into a gigantic fountain.

That's just the first boss.

Welcome to Shadows of the Damned.

Shadows of the Damned (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: June 21, 2011
MSRP: $59.99

Shadows of the Damned stars Garcia Hotspur, a flamboyant Latino demon hunter who embarks on a mission into Hell itself to rescue his girlfriend from Fleming, Lord of Demons. The survival horror style of Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is married to the abstract punk attitude of No More Heroes' Suda 51 and propelled along by a soundtrack courtesy of Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka. If that description hasn't set your heart racing, it's possible that you don't have a heart.

As far as games by Grasshopper Manufacture go, Shadows of the Damned may be the most "conventional" offering yet. It takes the form of a third-person shooter with many overt nods to old school horror games, where exploration and puzzle solving are just as much part of the experience as the combat. It's a more straightforward, dare I say traditional affair from a studio known for breaking rules and experimenting with gameplay.

However, if you think that more approachable interaction will make for a notably standard and formulaic adventure, you'd be dead wrong. Almost as if to compensate for the less bizarre gameplay, Shadows of the Damned features characters and concepts that are more demented than anything featured in past games.

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Giant crows that scream 'Fuuuuck yooooou' and a talking skull called Johnson that can turn into a gun called The Boner only scratch the surface of how ridiculous, insane and sometimes depraved the game can be. While Damned's endless parade of penis jokes can wear thin, the overall plot and impressively performed dialog is just so charmingly out-there that one cannot help laughing along. The comedy sometimes borders on anti-humor, but it never fails to be entertaining.

Even the conventional gameplay is presented in such an obscure way that you might be fooled into thinking it's more original than it actually is. For instance, some doors are locked and you have to find a key. Simple enough, except that the locks are whimpering babies' heads and the keys are eyes, brains or strawberries that need to be stuffed into their mouths. Ordinarily mundane gameplay tropes look and feel deceptively inventive through sheer force of presentation, and that's no small accomplishment.

The balance between light and dark is a central theme of Garcia's adventure. Pure darkness drains Hotspur's life if he remains in it too long, but pathways or items are often hidden inside areas drenched in the stuff. Furthermore, certain doors are barred by "demon pubes" that only disappear when their supply of blood is cut off -- blood which can only be seen and shot at when Garcia is in the darkness.

To help him fight off the darkness, Garcia can wield the light shot -- concentrated light that acts as the alt-fire of any gun. If he shoots this at goat heads or Light Sushi (I'm not explaining it!) he can illuminate his surroundings, although some demons will try to undo your work and plunge the area back into darkness.

Although most of the puzzles are self explanatory, that doesn't stop them from being enjoyable. You'll never really be stuck not knowing what to do, but it's still always cool and fun to act out the solution, if only for the humorous situations you're expected to take part in. Some of the areas where you're stuck in the darkness, collecting hearts to keep your energy up and looking for an exit, can be quite tense as well, although Garcia can always drink a bottle of tequila to keep his health up!

The combat itself can feel a little loose and clunky -- almost as if to hammer home the idea that it was developed by a studio not used to this type of gameplay -- but again it manages to remain fun in spite of any setbacks. Garcia has access to three weapon-types: the pistol-like Boner, the rapid-fire Teether and a close-range Skullcushioner. Over the course of the game, these weapons can be enhanced with red crystals and even transformed into new and powerful models after defeating a boss. Eventually you'll be able to shoot bombs from your newly acquired Hot Boner or fire a giant skull that acts like an explosive bowling ball.

Over the course of the game, Garcia will meet and face a variety of demons, many of which can be stunned with Light Shots and executed at close range. It's always satisfying to blast a weak demon's leg off and repeatedly stamp on its spine once it's grounded, generating white gems (the game's currency) with each stomp. Tougher demons will have red patches of human blood that grant them power, and exposing that blood to shoot at it is the only way to harm them. Demons that become doused in darkness will need to be robbed of their inky armor with a light shot before regular ammunition can finish the job. When surrounded, Garcia can also wield Johnson like a club, although melee attacks are generally useless.

An undeniable highlight is the range of eccentric boss encounters. Like so much about the game, none of them are especially difficult, but they follow the Zelda pattern of boss fights -- in that working out how to beat them is the challenge, rather than undertaking the required actions themselves. Figuring out the enemy's vulnerability, while never overtly taxing, is consistently rewarding.

Shadows of the Damned is dedicated to fun and silliness above all other concerns, and it mostly works. There are a few problems holding back the merriment, however -- the in-game camera has a strange momentum to it that sees it swing wildly from left to right at times, and the perspective shift while aiming seems to be off kilter a tad, making it more difficult than it should be to hit a target. Those who care about length will be put off by the fact that the game is eight hours long without any New Game Plus option, either. These issues are things that cannot help but be noticed, though they're minor inconveniences as opposed to overwhelmingly ruinous faults.

The same thing may not be said, however, for the many technical failings. I hate to say it, but the game itself is pretty atrociously buggy. For one thing, screen-tearing absolutely dominates the graphics, appearing regularly and obnoxiously throughout the entire course of the game. I also encountered no less than three glitches that actively roadblocked my progression and forced me to reload a checkpoint. I cannot pretend these problems aren't there and I cannot pretend that anybody playing the game has a good chance of being repulsed by the frankly shoddy production values of the finished product. As fun as this game is, there is some really sloppy stuff in that final code and I'm angry that a game so fun and ballsy has been let down by something so pathetic.

With such an angering complaint in mind, it's a testament to just how fantastically entertaining this game is that I declare it's worth the hassle. Shadows of the Damned is worth fighting through vertical sync failures and exasperating bugs just to see what happens next in one of the most wonderfully weird games you could ever play. It takes a rare, very special kind of game to be able to power through otherwise overbearing technical blemishes, but Grasshopper's latest manages such an impressive feat. So long as you go in prepared for an very imperfect game, you stand to have a riotous good time.

What the game lacks in graphical gorgeousness and technical competence, it more than makes up for with pure, unabashed, theatrical style. Of special note is Yamaoka's soundtrack, with which I believe the composer has outdone himself. Shades of Silent Hill are mixed with a heavier, punkier, more tongue-in-cheek style of music and there's more than a handful of standout tracks (the Light Sushi's theme tune alone makes the game worth playing through). The music is backed up by some fantastic voice acting, too. The banter between Steve Blum's ostentatious Garcia and Greg Ellis' neurotic Johnson makes for a great double act and a pair of protagonists that you just won't find in any other game.

Shadows of the Damned is an absurd game, but it's an absurdity so delicious in delivery that one can't help throwing common sense to the wind in order to just go with it. Despite being Grasshopper's most 'normal' game on many levels, Damned somehow manages to be the most memorable, idiosyncratic and preposterous game the studio has ever developed -- yet while it revels in its own weirdness, it never once excludes the player. Unlike many 'odd' games on the market, Damned wants you along for the ride, every step of the way.

All this, and I didn't even mention the level that acts as a glorious tribute to The Evil Dead.

Nobody will be able to deny that Shadows of the Damned has its glaring problems, but only the cold hearted can deny the game its credit as a refreshingly senseless, gratifying, pleasurable exploit. This crackbrained horror romp takes camp to a new extreme and wants you, the player, to have nothing but fun the entire time. For those in the right frame of mind and a willingness to forgive, that fun will be easy to discover and enjoyed by the bucketful. For everybody else, it is perfectly understandable that they will not find the problems so hard to overlook, but they will most surely miss out on a game that really needs to be seen to be believed.

For those people, I feel sad. They'll miss out on one of the funniest mindfucks this industry has to offer.

"

Halo 4: Master Chief's new look, personality will be explained - 343

Halo 4: Master Chief's new look, personality will be explained - 343: "Studio says there's a reason behind that missing cod-piece.


Eagle-eyed Halo fans noticed that Master Chief is sporting a subtle new look in Microsoft's Halo 4 trailer.



Click here to read the full article"

Crysis 2 DX11/High-res texture patches out next week

Crysis 2 DX11/High-res texture patches out next week: "Beef up an already gorgeous-looking game from June 27.


Crytek has confirmed that it will release new DirectX 11 and high-res update packs for the PC version of Crysis 2 on June 27.



Click here to read the full article"

Alice: Madness Returns brings solid platforming, tedious length

Alice: Madness Returns brings solid platforming, tedious length: "

The original Alice title was a PC exclusive, and remains a collector's item for fans of the darker take on an already dark story. We now have a sequel to that game that continues the story of Alice while also exploring her past. The game features solid platforming and some inspired aesthetic choices, but that doesn't save the game from repetition and a lack of ambition.

You'll be floating from platform to platform throughout the game, but the core mechanics have not changed or matured in any meaningful way in the sections I played. The problem is that each chapter seems to go on forever, long past the point of tedium.

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F.E.A.R. 3 Review

F.E.A.R. 3 Review: "

The F.E.A.R. series has unintentionally become 'that video game series I don't have time to play,' for myself. Approaching this as a new fan, F.E.A.R. 3 is a terrible jumping on point to figure out things like, 'who (or what) Alma is,' 'what's a F.E.A.R. agent,' and 'why is everyone attacking me?' These questions never get fully answered through the game's campaign, and if I were to judge this title solely on the merits of its single-player, it wouldn't be worth recommending. The strides it makes with co-op however -- along with its point accumulation system as well as some very tense and unique multiplayer modes -- makes this a great game to play with a giant bucket of buttered popcorn, a large Coca-cola, and some friends. This is your video game summer blockbuster.

As I mentioned before, this installment isn't the best area to start getting acclimated with Alma's saga. The narrative seems hell-bent on wrapping up various existing plot strings rather than doing enough to bring new players up to speed. This would be a moot point if I didn't care about narrative structure in my shooters, but I do -- I'm a stickler for this sort of thing. The campaign is poorly paced and does a meager job of giving me a reason why the character of Point Man exists. Some levels are also rudimentary in scope and gameplay -- insisting you find that one unlocked door in order to continue to the next area, or taking on high-level boss encounters with simple circle-strafing tactics. The A.I. makes up for these deficiencies somewhat -- it is quite remarkable to see enemies constantly try to flank my position or duck into cover when appropriate. But if it wasn't for the scoring system, the campaign would be unremarkable to play alone.

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All About Final Fantasy XIII-2's Art

All About Final Fantasy XIII-2's Art: "

If you're expecting Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII-2 to look much like the game it's a sequel to, think again. 'The concept is 'surrealism,'' said art director Isamu Kamikokuryo in an interview printed in this week's Famitsu magazine. 'The story and gameplay direction for FFXIII-2 was largely decided upon at an early point in development, and as I thought over what my goals would be for the visuals along those lines, that's what I came up with. I also want to have a dark feel to the game.'

That goes in the opposite direction from FFXIII's bright look, and that's no accident -- considering that the 'dark' direction is something that director Motomu Toriyama has brought up in interviews himself. 'It's not as if we're solely concentrating on that,' Kamikokuryo said, 'but I certainly had the impression that the story takes a serious turn here, and I thought surrealism would match well with it. There was also the fact that the staff on the last game wanted to go with a dark feel for FFXIII during pre-production. I wasn't aware of that since I was still working on FFXII at the time, and when I moved on to XIII, things shifted in a brighter direction instead. So partly it's also an effort to go back to the dark-fantasy style that was part of the original concept.'

Other points brought up in the interview:

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Tomb Raider will sport “ambitious combat”

Tomb Raider will sport “ambitious combat”: "

Crystal Dynamics’ Karl Stewart has explained why gameplay footage of Tomb Raider has so far only shown quick-time event combat.

“If we’re going to re-imagine the franchise, we want to get people to digest why we are doing it and who she is first,” the Tomb Raider global brand director told Kotaku.

“Combat is very, very dear to our hearts. We have built an entirely new combat team at the studio to work on it. It is very competitive.

“Combat is ambitious. It was ambitious when I first saw it and now it just feels natural to the game.”

In all previous Tomb Raider games, combat began with an iconic pair of pistols, but players will have to work with Lara to reach the point where she’s willing, able and equipped to bear them.

“We’re not going to start the game and say, ‘Here are two pistols and lets tie her hair up in a braid’ because that doesn’t stand for anything,” Stewart explained.

“We hope to bring gravity to those items.”

To elevate the pistols to something beyond a nice bit of kit, Crystal Dynamics loads them with emotional meaning; at the beginning of the game, they’re borne by Lara’s mentor, Captain Conrad Roth.

“We use that in a very psychological way. She loves Roth. She’s known him since she was very young. She knows she has to save him,” Stewart said.

The journey of transformation that takes Lara Croft from a frightened teenager to an as-yet unrevealed new heroine, packing those pistols, will set the tone for the sequels that are sure to follow.

“When you start this game you will go off and be the Lara Croft that was defined here. It also defines the future of that franchise,” Stewart said.

Tomb Raider is due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, having wowed at E3 and even won over our own Nathan Grayson.

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Kitase: FFXIII-2 is a “completely different experience”

Kitase: FFXIII-2 is a “completely different experience”: "

Have a look at these new screens for Final Fantasy XIII-2, and judge for yourself if producer Yoshinori Kitase’s claims of it being a “completely different experience” are true.

“We made Final Fantasy XIII with the concept of a story driven game,” Kitase told Siliconera.

“So much so, some gamers were not very happy with it and criticised XIII and said the game progression was too linear and the world could be more populated.

“With Final Fantasy XIII-2, we wanted to present a completely different experience with this game. There is more exploration and elements in the environment to interact with.”

Final Fantasy XIII-2 features interactive dialogue and branching endings, It’s due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012, with a Japanese release set for December.

Admire a few new screens below, courtesy of Andriasang. They shop off New Bodhum, the seaside settlement built after the events of FFXIII.

There’s also a couple more, one showing combat, available on Famistu.

"

Ezio is taken outside of his element in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Ezio is taken outside of his element in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations: "

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations presentation director, Brent Ashe, has said that Ezio’s motivation in the game will be much different than it was in Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood.

Speaking with Shacknews at E3, Ashe said that Ezio will be taken outside of his element, and taken to the city of Masyaf which was a location in the first game.

“Ezio never set out to be a master assassin,” explained Ashe. “His motivation has primarily been revenge: Revenge against the death of his family; against the death of his uncle at the hands of Cesare [Borgia] in Brotherhood. So, in taking him on more of a pilgrimage–a personal journey now–it’s sort of leading him to discover the secrets left behind by Altair.

“There are these five keys that Altair has left behind that unlock the seal in Masyaf at the Assassin temple. And Ezio also discovers in the course of this, that the Templars are also in pursuit of these secrets. So we set up this really nice narrative, kind of a race against time, so it’s a different motivation for him this time. What that’s doing, like I said, is taking him outside of his element.

“You’re in these new cities, these new places, and you’re going to discover that the Assassin Network sort of expands beyond what we’ve seen in the previous games.”

Ashe goes on to explain that the new character Yusef, head of the Assassin’s Guild in Constantinople, will be teaching Ezio about a new weapon called the “hook-blade,” which will also allow Ezio to use the network of zip-lines across the city.

You can read the entire interview through the link.

Revelations is due on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in November.

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