shooter
Latest
GRAW / XBLA Bundle on the way?
Club Skill reports that Microsoft will release a new 360 Premium bundle on September 30 that incudes a copy of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfigher and Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged for $399.99. XBLA Unplugged includes 6 titles: - Geometry Wars Evolved - Bejeweled 2 Deluxe - Wik: Fable of Souls - Hardwood Backgammon - Outpost Kaloki X - Texas Hold'em That's a great deal. But Club Skill doesn't reveal their source or offer any proof. File this under "wishful thinking" until we get official confirmation. Nice idea though. While we're talking fantasy bundles, why not throw in Oblivion and a 12 month subscription to XBL? [via 360stuff]
Columbine game scapegoated for Montreal shootings
The Toronto Sun (above) is one of a number of news outlets playing up the fact the Kimveer Gill, the shooter in a recent senseless attack at a school in Montreal, listed Super Columbine Massacre RPG as his favorite video game in a blog posting. At first glance, it seems like a natural connection -- a Columbine-style killer who was inspired by a game that lets you recreate the tragic events of the Columbine shootings. Yet while news outlets are quick to mention the game's scary name, or simply the fact that the killer "loved ... violent video games," no mainstream news source that I have seen actually looks at the game itself and why a disturbed, potential killer might be drawn to it.More than the crass, exploitative murder simulator that you may expect from the name, Super Columbine Massacre RPG explores the motivations of the Columbine killers and the aftermath of their attacks using quotes and source material from those involved. The game does let you control Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Matthew Harris, but doesn't come close to glorifying them or their actions. Rather, it shows the killers as confusing, troubled and deeply tragic figures.Is this game the call to murder that the paper's are implying? Or is it a game that creator Danny Ledonne says "dares us into a realm of grey morality with nuanced perspectives of suffering, vengeance, horror, and reflection;" a game that Ian Bogost of Water Cooler Games called "brave, sophisticated and worthy of praise from those of us interested in video games with an agenda;" a game that a blogger at The Pale Writer called "one of the only psychological explorations of the Columbine killers ever completed." The shootings in Montreal are obviously regrettable, but using the occasion to drag an important, intellectual, and well-made game doesn't do anyone any good.
Pentax's Optio E20 for simple folk
In the rampup to Photokina nought-six, Pentax brings us another new Optio shooter with their entry-level Optio E20. As followup to the E10, the E20 brings 6 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom, 2.4-inch LCD, and a "simple" mode setting which relieves the user of all responsibility for doing anything other than pushing the shiny button up top. No, on TOP we said, that's the zoom button ferchrisake. The E20 runs off a couple of AA batteries 'cause Pentax doesn't trust noobs anywhere near a battery charger. Sorry, no pricing nor ship date, just these pretty pictures. Mmm, pre-tty cam-er-a.
Scramble now available on Xbox Live Arcade
Scramble is not Lumines Live. Now that we've accepted that, let's consider the once delayed 1981 shooter and why you might be inclined to spend 400 MS points ($5) on it. Clearly, its educational value with regards to the many dangers of spaceship travel (observation: everything is out to kill you) is unsurpassed, but the core gameplay is quite easily sussed out. Scramble is a very basic and very traditional shooter -- more than enough description for shooter fans to show interest and everyone else to write it off as old hat. As with Konami's other Xbox Live Arcade releases (like the excellent Time Pilot from two weeks ago), the download includes updated graphics and sound, online matches, achievements and scoreboards. Microsoft should be announcing the next round of Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays within the next week. Hold on to your plummeting, musically inclined blocks until then.
Killzone demo UMDs spotted
Over at the Gamespot forums, one lucky fan seems to have secured a copy of the Killzone demo on UMD. I'm guessing these are going to replace the never-to-be-heard-from-again Gangs of London UMD demo that Sony promoted about a month ago? I'll be checking my mailbox every day, and so should you. If you're interested in being able to get more demos from Sony in the future, head over to their official website and register your PSP.
Killzone easily "outclasses" the competition
The original Killzone on the PS2 was a bit of a disappointment for many in the gaming community. Sony fans were cheering it as the "Halo killer" for their system, but the game couldn't live up to the hype when it hit store shelves. So, I'm always a little cautious when posting news about Killzone: Liberation, the exclusive PSP follow-up. While it looks absolutely marvelous, a persistant fear nags at me, making me wonder if we're getting our expectations a bit too high again. Of course, it's hard not to get excited when the video footage is so tantalizing, or if IGN previews the game and says "And this is, frankly, one of the finest experiences on the PSP." After an impressive CG intro, the game jumps into some intense top-down shooting, where you will have to utilize all of your skill sets in order to survive. The preview mentions that levels take about 10 to 30 minutes each, and aren't too easy: you'll be dying quite a bit. Multiplayer seems to get a good nod as well, especially now that it will feature infrastructure. With sweet graphics, good gameplay, and downloadable content, it seems like Killzone: Liberation will hit all the right spots when it comes out this Halloween.
Killzone to feature Infrastructure multiplayer, but not at launch
Killzone: Liberation is one of the most anticipated games for the PSP. The shooter will feature six-player Ad-Hoc multiplayer modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assault and Capture the Flag. Not bad. But more exciting is the potential for Infrastructure, which will be made as a downloadble upgrade a few weeks after the game's release on Halloween. In addition to multiplayer, two more maps will be released at that time and a new single player chapter, with four new missions. I'm assuming that it'll be good and free as the downloadable content in Wipeout: Pure. Even more exciting is knowing that downloads will be available throughout the year 2007 as well. Sweet! [Via Worth Playing]
Blog debate: PS3 to load games slower than the Xbox 360
From the "PS3 can't get a publicity break" file comes news that the system's Blu-ray load times will be slower than the DVD speeds of the Xbox 360. Following our post regarding Resistance: Fall of Man's beefy 22GBs of data, Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud (aka Ozymandias) wrote about why storage capacity isn't as important as drive speed and -- wouldn'tcha know it? -- Blu-ray has bunches of the former and not so much of the latter. Former Sony employee Mark DeLoura responded with a long, thoughtful response sticking up for the format that fanboys love to hate, talking textures, audio, and even read speed. Naturally, there's some guffawing from the other side of the aisle as Ozymandias takes umbrage with some of DeLoura's claims, notably that textures and other media will take up a sizable chunk of that Blu-ray disc. One area they are in agreement on is that Blu-ray's read speed isn't as fast as the Xbox 360's. Says DeLoura: "Admittedly, Blu-Ray looks dicey from several non-capacity angles. Blu-Ray movies require a 1.5x Blu-Ray drive, or 54Mbits/second. Sony announced that PS3 uses a 2x BD drive, which is 72Mbits/second or 9MB/second. The Xbox 360 uses a 12x DVD, which should give it about 16MB/second. That is significantly faster for games and will result in shorter load times. And that 12x DVD drive should be a whole lot cheaper. (Note that the PS3 drive will do 8x DVD, and even that is faster than 2x BD.)" Says Ozymandias in response: "This is pretty much what I've been saying regarding drive speeds. A good example of where we're pretty clearly agreeing." So, they're in agreement. The PS3 will load slower than the Xbox 360, leading one to question whether bragging about 22GB discs is the most prudent course of action. Let's hope they use the compression technologies touched on in the debate to shrink the data down considerably, even if it obviates a key selling point of the console. ... but wait, it's not all settled. Be sure to read the comments on Ozymandias' last post to get a bunch of great feedback, including this gem on the finer differences between CAV and CLV drives ("a BD25 on PS3 fares better than a DVD9 on the 360"), or Kim Pallister's link back to his own feedback on the fight and the "innovator's dilemma." [Thanks, Hank; via DigitalBattle] Grist - Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [Joystiq] Point - Drive Speed More Relevant to Games Than Capacity [Ozymandias] Counterpoint - On PS3 and Blu-Ray [Mark DeLoura] Counter-counterpoint - Oddly, We're in Violent Agreement [Ozymandias]
Time Pilot warps onto modern day XBLA
Time-traveling, zeitgeist shooting news now, with Konami's 1982 classic, Time Pilot, hitting Xbox Live Arcade today. Much like Frogger, the game has been given a few enhancements, including Xbox Live cooperative and versus play, enhanced sound and somewhat shinier graphics. The latter feature can be disabled if you prefer to keep things authentic -- we find that the retro visuals give a better indication that you've hit an enemy, whereas the revamped graphics have smoke trails that make it easier to spot incoming missiles. Is Time Pilot worth 400 MS points (or $5 in crazy money)? Well, the answer to that question largely depends on the value you attach to the score leaderboard. If you actively visualize your friends and their pitiful scores sitting in the cockpits of the biplanes, jets and UFOs (from the futuristic 2001 level) you're currently blasting to smithereens, the game is an absolute and horribly addictive blast. In terms of length, however, you'll find that Time Pilot takes very little time to complete, with only one of the achievements posing much of a challenge. The decision's easier if you fondly remember (or scornfully loathe) the game from your earlier, possibly emulated days, but we've been told that today's young people are generally enamored by games that involve shooting things until they spectacularly explode (as depicted in the following screenshots).
Smokin' hot new Red Steel trailer
Fresh from Leipzig, this new Red Steel trailer makes us wanna grab a shotty and get our vengeance on. Still, we are a little disappointed ... this new ad follows the same format of this older Red Steel trailer. We get it already -- it's immersive. And there's a guy on a roof with a sword. But all grumbling aside, we're ready to get into the game. Just watch that aquarium.
Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [update 1]
Insomniac Games, the guys behind the Ratchet and Clank series, were in the Big Apple showing off the latest build of their upcoming PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man. Kotaku had a Gawker cameraman on the scene to grab some video, and MTV News' Stephen Totilo managed the impossible. He extracted some positive press about the PS3 (Sony must be furious at Insomniac, this goes against their entire pre-launch strategy). Turns out that Blu-ray drive that every armchair analyst is convinced is a giant wooden equine built to penetrate our consumer-weary walls and then attack with an army of HD movies may actually be useful for gaming afterall. The game currently takes up 22GB! That's seven whole gee-bees more than a single layer HD-DVD disc that the Xbox 360 won't (?) be using for gaming. The Dual Shake functionality that was supposedly tacked on at the last minute ... well, it looks like it was still tacked on; nevertheless, it holds some serious promise. Ninety days before this thing has to be on store shelves the developers have still not activated the functionality on the controller, but they have added in some clever gameplay currently triggered with a button press. Shake off a melee attack by shaking the controller, or introduce the end of your rifle to their face with a quick jab of your right hand. Sure, you won't feel the vibration when that blow connects, but it's something. But there's also multiplayer. How will Sony's secretive service compare to the superlative Xbox Live? R: FoM will feature: "40-player online matches at launch; 60 levels of player progression while playing online; two-player offline co-op." 60 levels of player progression ... sounds like another popular online game. According to MTV News, Insomniac even promised "better, deeper support than any Xbox Live title." Has the PS3 buzz finally begun? We've been increasingly anxious that someone at Sony didn't get the memo that their latest and greatest was launching in a few scant months. [Update: Insomniac's Ryan Schneider called MTV News to clarify what exactly is on those 22GBs. "While the music and vocals in Resistance take up only about 1 Gigabyte of disc space, graphics, level data and programming code occupy most of the remaining 21."] Watch - New Resistance: Fall of Man video Read - MTV News on Resistance: Fall of Man
Bounty Hounds lets you blow up aliens
From the developers of Hello Kitty: Rescue Mission (hey, developers gotta pay the bills somehow, right?) comes the PSP-exclusive shooter Bounty Hounds. It's been a long time since we last heard about this game, but Namco Bandai has blown the covers off this game big time. The main gameplay involves you dual-wielding Halo 2-style, and you'll obviously have to choose the right weapons for the right occassion. In a feat of technical marvel, the developers have managed to squeeze a feature that we thought only the PlayStation 3 could do: real-time weapons swapping. With 500 weapons and items you can equip, and a unique energy field mode, this game is looking up to not be just a good shooter, but an original one as well. Span the mighty Internets to get your hands on multiple videos and perspectives:Gamespot:PreviewInterviewIGN:Progress ReportScreensMoviesGameVideos:Combat GameplayChoices GameplayAttacks GameplayMelee GameplayRanged Gameplay
Killzone: Liberation gameplay movies
Pictures may say a thousand words, but gameplay movies make your jaw drop to the floor and shut the h*** up. Readers inquisitive about the top-down perspective of this PSP-exclusive can now see for themselves how it can translate into some exciting run-and-gun on the go. Check out Killzone: Liberation at GameTrailers.com and don't forget to download the iPod-formatted MP4's: they'll work on your 2.8 firmware PSP. Videos: Squad Tactics Trench Warfare
Help the Gamma Bros. destroy evil space bats
It would be wise to examine the severe implications of a post such as this one. You know, one which links to a horribly addictive game filled with old-school flair, adorably pixelated explosions and unstoppable space bats. Gamma Bros. is exactly that kind of game, a sort of Galaga meets Robotron meets, well, space bats. As you sit there, caressing your keyboard into annihilating said beasties, consider how many people are doing the very same thing and how many more are sharing the experience with their friends. From this humble starting point, a plague of unproductivity will spread, tearing apart relationships, economies and the very concept of outdoor activity.But at least those stinkin' space bats will get what's coming to them.
Capcom to debut Lost Planet's multiplayer at Leipzig Games Convention
Capcom has announced plans to unveil Lost Planet's multiplayer at GC 2006 in Leipzig next month. Attendees will be given a chance to test out the game's 4v4 team battle mode. Sounds like standard fare. So what's the catch?Capcom's Hiroshi Tobisawa reports that over 400,000 Xbox Live users have downloaded the single-player demo. If the company hopes to sell as many retail versions of the game, the development team would do well to distinguish Lost Planet's online modes. Here's to hoping Xbox Live multiplayer isn't merely an afterthought tacked on to spruce up the list of gameplay features on the back of the box.
Time Crisis 3 tops Amazon's gaming list, outsells Brain Age & New Mario
How does a game released October 21, 2003 top Amazon's current best selling video games list? Good question. During the July 4 holiday weekend, Amazon dropped the price of Time Crisis 3 (with dual GunCon2s) to $19.99, sparking a surprising sales surge that shot the aging PS2 light gun title to the #1 position on Amazon's "Top Sellers in Computer & Video Games" list. While the industry is notorious for remaining dormant during the summer months, the Time Crisis 3 sale managed to outsell the red hot DS Lite and its most popular software titles, Brain Age & New Super Mario Bros. Time Crisis 3 is currently sold out on Amazon, but remains the bestseller as of this afternoon.
Sunday at X360F: GRAW aftermath
The results of last Sunday's GRAW poll are in. A full 26% percent of those polled have already downloaded the new GRAW content. While a majority of those players seem to be happy with the purchase, just over a quarter feel that the content wasn't worth the money. Comparing those who've already purchased it with those who'd only get it for free, it's pretty close with 575 votes and 509 votes respectively. Looking at the overall results, it seems that the sweetspot for content downloads is somewhere between free and $5 US. Still, a quarter of GRAW players are willing to shell out 15 bucks, and another third are willing to pay 5 or 10. That means 60% of those polled are willing to pay something. That's a pretty clear message for would be content providers. Remember folks, you vote with your dollars...er...points. Judging by these results, Ubisoft didn't quite hit the nail on the head, but they made out pretty well. What do you think?
Sunday at X360F Poll: Who's got GRAW content? [update 1]
Some of you may have noticed the rather vocal response to the news that new Ghost Recon content costs 1200 points. Most responses went to the tune of "Kiss my ass." Some have bitched and moaned, others gladly opened their wallets, and one person actually burst into flames. So, now that the content has hit, bringing with it the first signs of the apocalypse, the question is: did you get it? We'll take a look at these numbers next week. Who's got GRAW content? I got it. It's GRAWsome. I got it, but it's not worth 1200 points. 15 bucks? No way. I'd buy it for 800. I'd buy it for 400. I'd only get it if it was free. Basic poll stuff: don't vote if you don't have XBL and a copy of GRAW. And yes, you could spam the poll and throw off the results, but then you'd be a stupid jerk. You're not a stupid jerk, are you? Update 1: this poll is now closed. Check out the results here.
GRAW backlash: "1200 MS Points? Kiss my ass"
That low, droning whine you hear is the predictable response to the price of the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter's Chapter 2 Expansion pack, now available for download on Marketplace. Here's what you get for 1200 MS Points: Continuation of the multiplayer Co-op campaign with 4 all-new missions in Chapter 2 8 revisited, relit multiplayer Adversarial maps 2 all-new game types with 1 new game mode – Team Battle 2 new camouflage patterns 4 new character customization faces 5 new weapons Holy crap! 1200 MS Points! That's 171.75 Pesos, 576.453 Thai Baht or $15 American Dollars, the most expensive downloadable content we've seen so far. I think your level of acceptance/disgust with Ubisoft's Ghost gouging depends on whether you convince yourself this content is a true expansion pack ( the kind you used to pay $20 or $30 on an old-fashioned disc) or glorified horse armour. Team Xbox's hands-on will help you make up your mind. Of course, some people over at Major Nelson's complaint repository already have. Sample quote: "1200 MS Points? Kiss my ass." How many people will be shelling out for this relatively expensive expansion? Also, can somebody tell me what the PC people are getting for free? [Thanks Andy]
GRAW downloadable content up for 1200 MS bux
The much-anticipated downloadable content for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is finally here. Dubbed Chapter 2, this 724Mb download promises new weapons, new game types, and new missions, all for the low, low price of 1200 Microsoft points ... ... wait, 1200 Microsoft points? That's $15 in the US! That means a fully-loaded Xbox 360 version of GRAW is going to run you $75. Granted, that $75 nets you one of the best looking next-gen games along with an absolute crapload of downloadable content. Check out Team Xbox's hands-on to see what your $15 nets you or read this concise list and start making assumptions over whether or not it's worth it: Continuation of the multiplayer Co-op campaign with 4 all-new missions in Chapter 2 8 revisited, relit multiplayer Adversarial maps 2 all-new game types with 1 new game mode – Team Battle 2 new camouflage patterns 4 new character customization faces 5 new weapons [Thanks, Scott and X Budd]
