Rebooting a beloved and well established franchise like Castlevania was risky even before Konami outsourced the project to MercurySteam. But the little known Spanish developer, whose only major credit was the unremarkable Clive Barker's Jericho, would impress critics and fans with 2010's Lords of Shadow enough for Konami to greenlight two sequels. Mirror of Fate, a 3DS exclusive, is the first.
Whether you’re a true fisherman, a lapsed amateur, or someone who has never even put worm to hook in your life, fishing games can be a lot of fun – when done well. After the Wii’s motion controls led to an onslaught of questionable fishing games available at your local Academy Sports & Outdoors, the whole genre got pushed even farther off of the typical gamer’s radar. This April, one of the great fishing series tries to make a return when Super Black Bass 3D is released on the 3DS, but it’s uncertain if it will capture the classic majesty of the Black Bass series heritage.
As a fan of anime, I’ve played more than my fair share of iterative fighting games based off of my favorites, particularly the Dragon Ball Series. A common issue with those games is that they would often retell the same stories over and over, hoping that the changes in gameplay would warrant re-exploring the universe. Thankfully, the Naruto games haven’t suffered as much as the DBZ series since the story is still currently running. Though the games have largely been similar, the draw for me has been seeing my favorite moments from the anime and manga recreated in the beautiful engine used by CyberConnect2. Strangely though, upon getting my hands on the demo for the next title, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, I was pleased to see that there might be more than I bargained for in this package.
Upon learning about the direction of God of War: Ascension, I was hesitant to fully back this game. Instead of re-inventing the series, or continuing from the somewhat ambiguous ending of the third installment, Ascension was to be yet another prequel that would tell I was already familiar with. While the plot of the game still screams “useless filler” to me, my time with the game reminded me why God of War was so good to begin with. The absurdly high production values, a simple and stylish combat system, and larger than life set pieces in this thirty minute demo roused my interest in the series once again.
I wrote a sneak preview around E3 last year expressing my concerns over Dead Space 3. Now that I’ve had a chance to play DS 3 for myself I can say that the perceived problems I had with the game don’t seem to be problems at all. Unfortunately, I now have a whole new set of issues with the way this title is shaping up, and the decision to shift towards third person shooter territory sits at the top of the list.
The Nintendo 3DS is getting its fair share of great looking games in 2013. With games like Luigi’s Mansion 2, Animal Crossing, and Pokemon X and Y all coming out this year, there will be plenty for 3DS owners to get their hands on. Sooner than all of those comes the niche, but respected strategy game Fire Emblem: Awakening, the latest in a long series of strategy titles exclusive to Nintendo’s consoles. What I can tell you from my hands-on with the game is that not only is there a great game on the horizon, but it might just be one of the best 3DS games yet.
I love super heroes and I love video games so naturally whenever there is a combination of the two, I get excited. Though the results aren’t always favorable, there are a host of games that do our heroes justice. MMOs on the other hand have been a different beast, mainly hitting their stride a few years back with City of Heroes. Last year, DC took their chances in the MMO space with DC Universe Online, which has had decent success. While that game operates much like you would expect, Marvel has enlisted Gazillion Entertainment to helm their super powered MMO. Headed by Diablo creator David Brevick, Marvel Heroes combines elements from dungeon crawlers like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and the Diablo franchise to create something that has the potential to be great.
It’s no secret that many gamers fear change of any kind, flying into nerd rage anytime one of their hallowed franchises tries to mix things up. At the same time, they hate things to stay the same, quickly getting bored when a series doesn’t add enough new to a sequel. This is the rock and a hard place that Ninja Theory is trapped between with their gutsy take (don’t call it a reboot) on the Devil May Cry series. With the internet already ablaze with hate for the makeover of the popular antihero Dante, the sentiment has been that the game had better feel like Devil May Cry…or else. From the outset I’ve been behind Ninja Theory, happy that they’ve gone in such a bold direction, but even I have asked if the game will live up to my Devil May Cry memories. My recent time with the game tells me that the franchise is in good hands, even if I have new questions to replace my old ones.
I was really worried about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It was originally known as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and was announced in 2009 as an Xbox 360 exclusive. A troubled and protracted development cycle almost ended in cancellation before the project was given over to Platinum Games. We may never know the full story about how an Xbox 360 exclusive designed by an in-house team hand-picked by Hideo Kojima became a multiplatform game developed by Platinum, but I can at least say that my worries are gone. Metal Gear Rising may not be what people have come to expect from the Metal Gear series, but so far I’d say it’s an impressive game in its own right.
I’m sure that many were nervous when they learned that Halo 4 was being helmed by a brand new studio. After an impressive showing at this year’s E3, it’s been becoming more and more apparent that not only does 343 Industries know what they are doing, but they are pushing the series in a fresh, yet familiar direction.
I’m going to go on a limb here and say that The Wonderful 101 will be a sleeper hit for the Wii U. While it has garnered some noticeable hype within some audiences, it is an easy game to overlook. For those not sure about the game, it is best described as being a simple mesh of Viewtiful Joe and Pikmin. After spending some time with the game, I must say that it went from a just game that looked interesting, to game that I’m really excited about.
Zombi U is being regarded as one of the biggest launch titles for the Wii U. If there was any indicator of that, the long lines at the Wii U booth were just that. At NYCC this year, Zombi U boasted lines that required a pretty long wait. As the only launch title I have pre-ordered for the Wii U, I made it a point to get my hands on with this return to survival horror.
When Sony announced Playstation All Stars, fans of the developer and its long list of exclusive characters let out rounds of applause. Unfortunately, that applause was followed by a mildly depressed sigh of remorse for a game that looked to steal major portions of the Super Smash Brothers battle system. Luckily, players who have been able to get their hands on the beta of Battle Royale have come away with relief all over their faces.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since Hitman: Blood Money hit the scene. It was released in that heady time around the launch of the “seventh generation” of consoles, when it was still common to see games come out for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 alongside the Xbox 360. As such, Blood Money wasn’t technically a seventh generation game; it was designed with the PCs and consoles of 2005 and upscaled to run on the 360. That was my introduction to the series, and even though the game came across as dated by the time I got to it in 2009 I was impressed with the sheer amount of options for completing objectives in every level.
The most sought after demo at this year’s QuakeCon that didn’t require a virtual reality headset was Bethesda’s upcoming stealthy first person shooter: Dishonored. Really, sticking the game in the FPS pigeon hole is a bit constricting since during the short demo, I possessed several people, summoned swarms of rats, and slowed time to a crawl. The single level I got to play showed a ton of promise for a game set in a refreshingly unsettling world with a myriad of different methods available to reach your objectives.
In just a few months, Nintendo's Wii U will push aside the Wii from store shelves, its memory will begin to fade from our gaming consciousness, and that little blue light will shine no more. With one last epic RPG The Last Story coming out this week, it's not a bad way to die.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is on its way to being just as good, if not better than its predecessor if my latest hands-on with the game is any indicator. 2010’s War for Cybertron left a lasting impression on me, and was one of my favorite games of that year. It finally set the bar for what a Transformers game should be like with the right amount of action, fluidity of gameplay, and the overall production value. Thankfully, Fall of Cybertron continues that trend. The latest demo, which includes single and multiplayer components shows that High Moon has learned from some of its mistakes in the last game and is trying hard to make sure that Fall of Cybertron is a better game overall.
Nintendo’s struggles with their online strategy (if you can call it that) are widely known and widely reviled. We’ve seen some slight improvements as the years click by, but it looks like Square-Enix might be the ones to teach the big N how to really do things right on the 3DS with Heroes of Ruin. Square-Enix and design house n-Space picked the perfect sort of game to leverage the online functionality of the 3DS – a dungeon crawler. Keeping far away from the frame-by-frame criticality of an FPS or fighting game, a game in the vein of Diablo should let Nintendo’s network stretch its legs without really angering the hardcore twitch gamers. Although already released in Europe, Heroes of Ruin doesn’t launch in North America until July 17th, and the online multiplayer is just one aspect that has us sharpening our swords in anticipation.
You know those trippy sequences in movies that come out of nowhere with no real explanation or warning? Like the pink elephants in Dumbo or the weird tunnel sequence in Willy Wonka? Far Cry 3 is basically filled with stuff like that. Want a lap dance from a tribeswoman with painted breasts? You got it. Want to walk around on TV monitors while your adversary Vaas is doing a pole dance one minute and pushing you to shoot him the next? Here you go. Insanity is the reoccurring theme in Far Cry 3 and if it's successful, we'll all be in for a psychological thrill ride.
If you read my review for Avernum, you know that I missed out on most of the major PC hits of the 90s. So it should go without saying that I did not partake in the white-hot popularity of the XCOM series. I was one of those people who thought the upcoming first person take on the franchise looked pretty good, and I avoided all of the rage surrounding the departure of the game from its strategy roots. Taking that into consideration, I find myself extremely intrigued by the game that Firaxis is working on—XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Like many of you out there, I wasn’t terribly impressed by Nintendo’s press conference at this year’s E3. One of the things they touted as being a major showpiece was a game called Nintendo Land. Much like Wii Sports, the aim of this title is to introduce players to a new controller--in this case the Wii U GamePad--through a virtual theme park bursting with references to classic Nintendo franchises. At each attraction, your mii will don an appropriate costume and partake in a challenge that teaches the player a new way to use the Wii U GamePad. Nintendo’s hope is that this game will do for the Wii U what Wii Sports did for the Wii, and explain to new players exactly what the Wii U is all about.
Sometimes a title comes along that brings to mind childish wonder. A game that brings back memories of the past, before realism was the standard and fantastical worlds were the norm. A title that includes colorful graphics, spinning spike-riddled death traps, and rocking grandmas. Wait, what?
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two has something to prove. The first game created divided opinions, and the announcement of a sequel wasn't exactly highly anticipated. However, a sequel is just what Junction Point is creating, and the return of Mickey aims to appeal to a wider audience by fixing the issues of the first game while also bringing the world of Wasteland to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in addition to the Wii.
Project P-100 was Nintendo's best kept secret at E3 2012. It was so well kept, in fact, that it wasn't even shown at the Nintendo press conference. One would think that an exclusive game designed by hotshot Japanese developer Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) would be something that Nintendo would want to shout about, but instead the game got a quiet reveal on Spike TV after the press conference.
Epic Mickey was released in 2010 to extremely polarizing reviews. Junction Point aims to address the criticisms of the game in hopes of reaching a larger audience with Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. In addition to the console sequel a portable game for the 3DS from developer Dreamrift was revealed at E3, and while it shares the same concept as Epic Mickey, this title is mostly inspired by the Sega Genesis classic Castle of Illusion.
