Arcade

Dead Nation – Review

Published By: SCEA, Developed By: Housemarque, Genre: Action, Release Date: November 30, 2010, Rating: M, Systems: Playstation 3 (PSN).

Presentation: I originally started playing Dead Nation soon after the whole PSN fiasco happened last year. You remember you could pick two PSN games and two PSP games? Well finally i am now getting around to writing  review for this twin-stick zombie shooter. Dead Nation upon start-up evokes a strong George A Romero vibe. If you seen any of his zombie movies Dead Nation has a similar vibe. The presentation regarding Dead Nation is a mix bag overall. On one hand you have a dark challenging zombie shooter with good content. On the other hand you have a shallow story and a gang of problems relating to its online component.

While waiting to sync with random Dead Nation players for co-op online can get frustrating. Most times you except the person you connect to. When the game starts up it either freezes or you loose connection to the player. Asides from that, no mic support in Dead Nation. When strictly talking atmosphere Dead Nation does the zombie thing good enough. The game takes place mostly at night. The visuals evoke an apocalyptic vibe and the sound design adds a visceral touch of its own. The main menu screen featured menus of Solo Game, Co-Op Game, Online Game, Global Status, Rankings, Options, Online Store and Gallery. Navigating the menus and interface wasn’t a chore and featured good menu music.

At the bottom of the Dead Nation’s menu screen features a news feed of updates and fictitious info. Dead Nation really pushes its world rankings alote. Every country is scored on how many zombies it killed and shown on the news feed. The controls via the Duel Shock 3 gamepad: R1-fire weapon, L1-throw item, R2-close combat, L2-rush, LS-move, RS-click (reload)/aim, D-pad-previous item/weapon. For the most part the controls are decent. Dead Nation naturally is a challenging game. Its difficult even on Normal. Upgrading and using all of your flares, mines, grenades can only help you.

Story: Dead Nation’s story centers around two protagonists Jack McReady and Scarlet Blake. You can play Dead Nation with either character. The stories of each character aren’t so different in the end. They both are trying to get to the same location. Jack McReady and Scarlet Blake both have their reasons for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Dead Nation never really explores how, why or who is responsible for the outbreak. Its story is more focused on the two main characters and their struggle for survival. Cutscenes with narrating at the start of each chapter fleshes out the story.

Visuals: Dead Nation is a decent looking game. Good lighting accompanied with decent artstyle brings out the atmosphere. Levels and settings are diverse featuring hospitals, carnivals, rail sequences and even snow covered landscapes. My only complaint is that the game is too dark all of the time. There were many times i just wanted to see dusk or a glimmer of sunlight.

Sound: I did like the sound design in this game. The zombies pretty much all had unique sounds attached to them. The music sounded as if it was ripped out of one of the newer zombie movies. The sound design really fit this game like a glove.

Gameplay: Shooting zombies in a top down view has been done before. I played so many Xbox Live Indie Games where you’re in a top down view shooting waves of zombies. Does Dead Nation set itself apart from most twin-stick zombie games? Not really. However the co-op, armor upgrades and stores do help the gameplay. Dead Nation isn’t an easy game to walk through, its difficult. Some of the weapons i used were assault rifle, smg, rocket launcher, flame thrower, a gun that shoots electricity, a gun that shoots blades and the shotgun. Each gun is upgradable at stores at each major checkpoint. You can also buy and upgrade, grenades, flares and mines.

Upgrading is important especially for tactical items like the latter. For guns you can upgrade stuff like ammo, power, rate of fire etc. As far as zombies go they really range from all types. You have your normal grunts that move slow. You have big swarms of faster moving zombies. You have fat zombies that spit and giant zombies that jump and leap towards you. Some zombies do take strategy to destroy. Many areas in the Dead Nation has you pres a button and wait for a lift or door to open. At which time you have to fend off mass amounts of zombies. The gameplay at times did get repetitive and predictable.

Replayability: The single player campaign will last you upwards of five hours. You can play in co-op (if people still play it on PSN). You can collect armor sets to strengthen your character. As you play Dead Nation you can venture back to the Gallery menu to see artwork you unlocked. There is also Road to Devastation DLC if your tired of the main campaign. Overall the content is good in Dead Nation. But be warned the online component does have issues.

Final Verdict: Dead Nation is a good, challenging top down zombie shooter that features online co-op. There are some glaring issues with the online componant but doesn’t take too much away from the gameplay. Thanks for reading.

6.5/10

PixelJunk SideScroller – Demo impressions

Pixeljunk Sidescroller takes the Pixeljunk name and transforms it into an old school style neon lit sidescrolling space shooter. If your not a regular on PSN you might not have heard of Pixeljunk Monsters, Pixeljunk Eden, Pixeljunk Shooter or Pixeljunk Racers. To make a long story short Pixeljunk games are popular exclusive arcade style games on PSN. Pixeljunk Sidescroller is a 2d shooter developed by Q Games and published by SCEA exclusively for the Playstation 3. It released October 25, 2011.

I guess i’ll start with the menu screen. Start Game, Leaderboards, Options and How to Play. The button layout (Dual Shock 3): LS-D-pad-move, R1-shoot (hold for rapid fire), L1-charge attack (hold down then release), Square and Circle-change weapons, Start-pause. You can switch between various weapons with L2-R2 buttons. As far as the controls go for this 2d shooter they are decent. The problem lies more with bad level and enemy design. But all in all the controls and button layout were decent. If i did want to get picky they could change the buttons for switching weapons.

The basic premise of Pixeljunk Sidescroller is to guide your ship through waves of enemies. I would advise the most important gameplay aspect is picking up weapon power-ups. You can advance all of your basic weapons five full levels through power-ups. Its simple really, if you don’t collect power-ups you won’t last long in the game mostly due to bad level design and enemy patterns. The default weapons that you can strengthen include: Machine Guns, Laser, Bombs and Charge Attack. Certain weapons are more effective against certain enemies and map areas.

Items you can pick up include 1-Ups, Power-Ups (as discussed above), Secret Crowns, Shields and Coins. Coins and Secret Crowns are more collectible based then power-ups. The problem with collecting power-ups in the demo was the level design hindered me from getting most of them. I can’t say the screen moved too fast left to right cause that would sound silly for a side scroller. I grew up playing these type of games btw so they are far from new. I just thought the level design played a big role in making the demo of Pixeljunk Sidscroller not too fun.

When talking about this game’s presentation some parts do jump out and shine bright. That being the atmosphere and how the music plays into that effect. The music was really good. From the main tittle screen cyber beats to the in-game relaxing melodies i was impressed with the music. The music tried its damnedest to make this game seem fun. As far as visuals go Pixel Junk Sidescroller look like a neon wonderland of soft colors. The visuals do give you a calming vibe even when the level design frustrates you.

All in all i would say Pixel Junk Sidescroller is a mediocre 2d shooter at best. The level design manages to suck most of the fun out of this game. However i did really enjoy the music in the demo. Thanks for reading.

Trials Evolution – Gameplay Trailer

One misconception about owning an xbox 360 is that people think there are no true exclusives being developed regularly. Take a look at Trials Evolution below. To me games like these (Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games) are what owning and Xbox 360 is all about. Trials Evolution is the sequal to the ultra popular XBLAG Trials HD which is a motorcross driving game. After watching the trailer of Trials Evolution it not only looks to one up its predecessor but blow its doors off. How about doing stunts with a skier? Or maybe control a giant ball via Super Monkey Ball style? Try your hand at multiplayer over XBL or locally at home.

The biggest and possibly best edition is the level editor. Just take a look at some of the level designs made possible in the trailer below. You can change enviroments and place buildings anywhere. You can share your newly created tracks or just play other people’s work. Its limitless as far as replay value is concerned. Near the end of the trailer you can see a top down racing game. Many games are possible as the trailer shows a physics based game, fuzzball type game, old school shooter type game and last but not least a first person shooter. I’m impressed i admit it. Glad to own an Xbox 360 and have XBL. Trials Evolution is a driving game developed by Red Lynx and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Trials Evolution releases sometime this spring. Thanks ign.

Puddle – Demo Impressions

Puddle is a physics based game where you tilt the screen using the Left or Right Triggers on the Xbox 360 gamepad.  Your goal is to manipulate a puddle of liquid and help it reach the exit of each stages while avoiding dangers. Puddle is developed by Neko Entertainment and published by Konami. Its currently available as a Xbox Live Arcade Game (XBLAG). It will also release on PSN (January 31, 2012) and later on the VITA.

The main menu screen featured Play, Laboratory, Leaderboards, Achievements, Unlock, Buy Full Game, Help & Options and Exit Game. I immediately went into the Help & Options to see the controls: Left Trigger (tilt left), Right Trigger (tilt right), Back (restart level) and Pause (start). The controls are practically flawless. All your really doing is rotating the screen left or right to manipulate liquid where you want it to go. Its not hard to mess up the controls in Puddle since its juts a simple physics based puzzle game.

After looking at the controls i then checked out the Achievements section. The achievements looked pretty easy. “Goldrush” you just have to get 48  gold medals and “Total Reaction” you get that when you finish all levels. Although you can only play one level in the demo you can see all of the levels in Puddle on-screen. Watercourse, Nursery, Laboratory, Sewers and Rocket and a few others. The full game has 8 chapters with 6 levels each. So you have 48 total levels which seems like a decent amount.

One gameplay feature that caught my eye was the ability to unlock secret levels.   When talking about Puddle’s gameplay its pure addicting. Its fun and it makes you want to keep trying everytime you lose all your liquid to dangers. Dangers include fire that comes in the forms of flames mostly. The level design in the demo was good. It was interesting and challenging enough to make getting to the end rewarding. To bad i could only play one level i wanted more.

The presentation is good. From the title screen’s music to the visuals of the liquid. The game has quality written all over it. The music and sound design gave me a science vibe (if that is possible). I usually don’t try out physics games but something told me to give Puddle a go. Glad i did i really enjoyed the gameplay and presentation of this liquid manipulating videogame.

Puddle is a pretty good puzzle physics game judging from the demo. I wasn’t expecting this game to be good or bad. In the end, it turned out really good. If your a fan of physics based games give the demo of Puddle a try. Its a short demo but a good demo. Thanks for reading.

Deadlight – Teaser Trailer

Deadlight is a post-apocalyptic videogame centered around Randall Wayne during the 1980′s. From what i understand a disease wiped out most of humanity and turned the others into zombies. If your lucky like Randall Wayne you can pretty much just run for your life and stay a human. I was thinking this game could be a 2D platformer from the trailer but you never know.

The CGI trailer shows Randall near Vancouver which means Deadlight could take place in northwest USA and Canada. Most XBLA games published by Microsoft Game Studios usually turns out good so i’ll be definitively keeping an eye on this one. This arcade game is being developed by Tequila Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively as an XBLA game. It releases TBA which can pretty much mean anything. Thanks ign.

Sine Mora – Trailer

Believe it or not shoot’em up games like Sine Mora were very popular back in the day. I grew up playing 2D and top down shoot’em ups years ago so Sine Mora isn’t anything new from a genre perspective in my case. What i liked most about the trailer below besides the visuals was the comparison between Normal and Insane gameplay difficulties. The video below shows off some nice visual backdrops, bosses you’ll encounter and blazing action.

Shoot’Em Ups were the First-Person Shooter back in the 80′s and early 90′s. These types of  games were designed to challenge your hand /eye coordination like no other. Sine Mora was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox Live Arcade. There is no release date yet but i have a TBA 2012 for ya, Thanks ign.

AMY – Demo Impressions

Usually i can make myself play through a bad videogame demo without a hitch. But today i met my match with AMY. Not only did i not finish the demo i’m surprised i made it as far as i did in this devastatingly unplayable horror action game. Vector Cell developed AMY and  Lexis Numerique published this horrendously bad horror title. AMY is now available on Xbox Live as a Arcade game but releases on PSN next week (Jan 17, 2012). It will also release for the PC with a TBA release date. Don’t worry about AMY’s release dates gamers you should stay clear and far away from this game trust me on this.

When you start up AMY you see the menus Adventure, Help & Options, Achievements, Leaderboard and Unlock Full Game. AMY’s archaic tank controls button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: D-pad-turn off/on lamp/open inventory/check weapon, A-use serum, LB-jog/run, LT-hit/dodge, RS-crouch/camera, A-action/use, Y-interact, RT-aim/select/power/release power, RB-call Amy/hold Amy’s hand, ask Amy to stay, Select-display tutorial/commands/manual.  Throw the controls and AMY out of the window. First off the controls are horrible and takes two buttons to do everything.

Combat is horrid with the controls you’re praying and swinging for a homerun each time you melee an enemy. The controls are so clunky and wonky its just a chore to turn around and walk. I then checked out the Achievements section after looking at the controls layout. There are 12 achievements in AMY. You get 10g for completing each of the 5 chapters and 50g if you beat AMY on hard. I want to meet the gamer that gets that 50g for beating AMY on hard since the game on normal is hard due to its horrid design, gameplay and combat. You should get a achievement for buying AMY!

AMY opens up with a cutscene of Lana and Amy on a train after escaping a place called the Phoenix Center. Immediately i saw horrible framrate dips, stuttering and slowdown in the cutscene. The writing was horrible for the most part. It seems Lana (protagonist) got the best lines in the demo. Amy really doesn’t talk due to her condition of spotting horrendous tragedies before they happen. The cutscene ends after the train crashes mysteriously at a deserted train station. At which time Lana goes on a duck-hunt for Amy. In the process she meets Marcello who is just a horrible sidekick. His face looks like it was smeared with vasilene and frying grease. His writing and voice actor were as bad as his face looked. After meeting Marcello the cabdriver “with connections” he hands you a Genetic Lock Cracker.

It looks like a weird remote laser gun you use to track down and analyze red dots (DNA) scattered on your HUD. You are trying to unlock a security office by tracking down the person’s DNA. Most of the time i was asking myself “why am i doing this?” sense it made no sense. The gameplay in the demo made no sense so i could imagine the full game. Why do enemies turn to mist after you hit them with a stick? I don’t know. Why am i tracking down red dots on my HUD when i should be tracking down Amy after the train crash? I don’t know. Why is hacking so tedious and ridiculous? I don’t know. I know its early in the year but i have a feeling AMY just might be the worst game i play all year (and its just a demo to boot).

The best part of AMY’s presentation is easily its visuals. I’m not saying the game looks like Crysis 2, it looks barely average. The setting was mostly dark in a big train station. The character designs were decent in-game but weird looking during cutscenes. I did like the contemporary sci-fi setting of AMY. The music was decent at times and borderline over the top in combat situations. The voice acting was a real mixed bag as it seemed Lana got the best lines and everybody else got crappy ones.

What made me ultimately stop playing the demo was the first hacking sequence you encounter. It was so ridiculous and tedious. You had to guess way too much and memorize 5 different symbols. If you don’t guess/memorize them all in 5 tries you start over with a different set. I was thinking this is for Ceaser of Rise of  The Planet of the Apes and not normal gamers. The game was horrid enough now you want us gamers to play a tedious hacking game? No thanks QUIT!

Bastion – Early Impressions

Bastion is a action role-playing game that took the gaming industry by surprise last year. Gorgeous visual artstyle along with its real-time voiced narrating just oozed of coolness. After putting in a few hours into a Steam copy of Bastion one thing is for certain and that is, Bastion is one slick game! Supergiant Games are the publishers to this stylish RPG while Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment the publishers. Bastion originally released on the Xbox 360 first (Jul 20, 2011) and then on PC (Aug 16, 2011). Like i alluded to above, i am playing through Bastion on my PC via Steam.

The main menu screen shows Story, Help & Options, Leaderboards, About Us and Exit Game. i immediately went into the options and changed some graphical settings. I also plugged in my Xbox 360 gamepad: A-evade, B-attack 1, X-attack 2, RT-secret skill, LT-defend, Y-heal, X-use/interact, RS-reload, Back-open pack, LB-Next target and RB-prev target. The Xbox 360 gamepad works flawlessly with Bastion on the PC. It didn’t take me long before i was  evading, shooting arrows and activating my special skill seamlessly. The controls are responsive and gameplay rewarding for this indie arcade RPG.

I changed my PC settings around to fit my hardware (4870, Quad Core and 6 gigs DDR3 RAM). I cranked up the resolution to 1680 x 1050, Anti Aliasing 4x. The game performed and looked great. The art in Bastion pops out of the screen as you traverse the three quarter top down view world. I choose Normal Mode for my difficulty. I could have went the easier route of No Sweat Mode but why do that? As far as the story goes its sketchy early on. However “The Kid” is the protagonist while “The Stranger” who sounds like a dead ringer for Shaft is famous for his in-game voice narrating and is useful when asking questions.

The Kid is on a quest to rebuild Bastion piece by piece. He does that by collecting Cores found in the Skyway. The Skyway is a overmap and shows all of the areas to collect Cores and complete Proving Grounds missions. You will unlock more areas as you collect Cores.  Where you already collected a Core the Skyway will show a dark island. Proving Grounds are also on the Skyway world map. Here you can win special items when you complete specific weapon challenges. I completed the Breaker Bow challenge and won some string to upgrade my Bow with. Bastion is a RPG albeit it a mild one. You gain XP that can be used to upgrade and add to The Kid’s special skills via the Distillery.

The Armory is the place where The Kid can either store his weapons or choose which weapons he wants to carry. At the Forge you can upgrade your weapons by collecting or winning items found while hunting down Cores or completing Proving Ground missions. There seems to be a good selection of weapons and magic to use in Bastion. Every weapon has its own unique upgrade abilities and all of the special skills are unique and effective in combat. I’m currently using the upgraded Cael Hammer, upgraded Breaker Bow and the Mirror Shield special skill.

When you choose which Core to pursue you find that the missions are varied. Some require you to fight waves of enemies like Gershel and his Scumbags, Gasfellas and Squirts. Other times you have to fight a boss to retrieve the Core. As you find Cores and put them into the Monument Bastion grows stronger at which time you can contruct your own Forge, Distillery and Armory stations. You will gain XP and on occasion run into interesting NPCs to talk to. You will always gain XP and find unique artifacts and upgrade materials when out Core searching. Bastion is a solid game all around and it really has no glaring weaknesses early on.

The gameplay is solid hack n slash where using range weapons and your shield are important. The special skills use up Black Tonics so i used them only when i needed to. Bastion is fun and engaging as far as gameplay goes. Bastion’s greatest strength is its presentation. Its a cool game. The music, visuals and in-game voice narration reaks of coolness. I really enjoy this game’s atmosphere. I could type all day about Bastion but i am purposely gonna cut it off here so i can beat the game and review it soon. So expect my full review of Bastion in the near future. Thanks for reading.

King of Fighters XIII – Demo Impressions

King of Fighters XIII marks the return of the once very popular fighting franchise King of Fighters. I used to play King of Fighters back on my Neo-Geo console (cartridge) so i’m kinda old school regarding the franchise. I admit i haven’t played too many recent King of Fighters till today. I have to say regarding King of Fighters XIII as a demo and a game its solid. SNK Playmore are the developers while Atlus Co the publishers. King of Fighters XIII released for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 November 22, 2011.

For the record i played the game on my Playstation 3 for this article. The main menu section had a plethera of menus but only a few you could actually access. You have the Tutorial (playable), Arcade, Story, Versus (playable), Practice, Playstation Network (playable), Replay, Gallery, Mission, Customize, Player Detail, Playstation Store and Options. The Options section had the default controls for the Duel Shock 3: Square-LP, Triangle-HP, X-LK, O-HK, R1-LP+LK, L1-LP+HP and L2- LK+HK. As far as the controls go they are solid. The buttons are placed nicely and feature minimal lag. I never felt like i was getting screwed over during my Versus and Muliplayer matches.

Tutorial – Rose Bernstein instructs you in two categories regarding King of Fighters XIII’s tutorial. Base System teaches you the basics like hopping, crouching and dashing. In Guage System she shows you what each gauge is and their importance while fighting. Some of the gauges are Health Guage, Power Gauge and Special Guage. Its all basic stuff i spent a few minutes just to see what it was all about.

Versus – Versus is a 3 on 3 (myself versus the cpu) match. In this section you will be able to see which fighters and levels you can play on. As far as characers go there are six: Terry, Andy, Joe, Kula, Maxima and K’. I only recognized Terry and Joe. The stages included a UK Sqaure type setting. The other two featured a Matrix like setting and the other in China. In Versus you select your three fighters (i could only select Terry, Joe and Andy). The stage was the UK one. You can select your fighter’s colors and order to fight. I set Terry first, Joe second and Andy last. As far as the match went i hat-tricked all my foes with Terry. The cpu was set to normal difficulty so i won’t brag. It was however a fun little match and got my apetite wet for online mode.

Network – The Network menu featured Ranked Match, Player Match (playable), Friend Match and Ranking. I chose Playe Match and then Quick Match. I was transported to a room with a few lobbies. I picked one and got the match started. For this online multiplayer match i choose the same set-up from Versus mode regarding fighters and orders. The first match was Terry versus Terry. I barely lost to the person on the other side. Next i had Joe and boy did his flaming kicks and tornado punches own. I Hatricked all of his fighters with Joe. All i did was back him into a corner and do wild kicks and punches. I think the person i beat was a noob like myself however i was obviously the better noob. It was alote of fun regardless and the highlight of the King of Fighters XIII demo in my opinion.

As far as the presentation goes regarding the King of Fighters XIII demo its really good. You can play a tutorial level, a versus cpu level and online multiplayer. Remember this is the Playstation 3 version i played i can’t comment on any other system atm. The visuals are really good. Its like the animations are retro with updated polished graphics. When you realize how good the controls are the animations don’t matter much. Some of the characters in the demo that i have never seen had nice imaginative art designs and featured nice effects. The music wasn’t nothing to gawk over but the sound design regarding fighting was solid.

The biggest compliment i can give King of Fighters XIII is that its fun as hell. Its a fun fighting game and the demo had a good level of content. Thanks for reading.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – Debut Trailer

I was pretty ecstatic to learn of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare during the VGAs due partly to the fact i played Alan Wake to death. Alan Wake in my opinion is an underrated true Xbox 360 exclusive.  It was also one hell of an action thriller game. I even beaten Alan Wake on Nightmare difficulty so how is that for love? As far as Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is concerned Mr.Scratch looks like he will be a worthy advisory to Mr. Wake.

Remedy Entertainment are making American Nightmare a arcade downloadable title for the Xbox 360 for Xbox Live Arcade.  The enemies look as demented and crazy as the ones in Alan Wake. If your into thick atmospheric thriller games with suspense that have a Stephan King tone about it. Check out Alan Wake’s American Nightmare when it releases Q1 next year. Thanks GamerSpawn.