I still remember the summer when Guitar Hero 2 came out. It was a summer not unlike this one. The sun was hot and the air was clear, but I did not go outside. I stayed in and worked my way through career mode on medium, then hard, and then expert. Would you believe, I started impressing girls with my button-shredding abilities?
Video game fans, take my advice. Stay in this season and hone your fake guitar skills with Activision’s Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. Some may scoff at this newest entry, a compilation of the greatest hits from previous guitar hero releases, but the core gameplay remains tight and challenging as ever. The tracks have been taken from Guitar Heroes 1, 2 and 3, with entries from Rock the 80’s and Aerosmith. All of the tracks are now playable by the whole band – guitar, bass, vocals and drums – just as in Guitar Hero World Tour. The selection features lots of reliable favourites, but like the rest of the series there’s a heavy weighting on classic rock and metal. READ MORE »
It’s not just for boys or the Japanese anymore. Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced a new Limited Edition Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack. Similar to the Madden and Daxter packs that came before it, the Hannah Montana kit will include: a copy of Disney Interactive’s Hannah Montana: Rock Out The Show video game, three episodes of the tv show on UMD, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro DUO and, of course, a lilac-coloured PSP-3000.
Gamers can customize their PSP with fashionable vinyl stickers also included. “The new Limited
Edition Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack plays a central role in SCEA’s larger ‘Girlz Play Too’ initiative and we’re committed to bringing a steady stream of female-friendly content to consumers,” says John Koller, the company’s Director of Hardware Marketing. “While SCEA has a broad range of PSP owners from under 12 to over 45 years old, we saw a tremendous opportunity for us to connect with the female and ‘tween’ demographic and create a PSP system that girls will love.” Sony has certainly been throwing a lot of support at the PSP lately. Some gamers can look forward to portable entries from Ubisoft’s Petz and LittleBigPlanet, while others await the new Assassin’s Creed and Soulcalibur games.
The Hannah Montana Pack has an MSRP of $199.99 and is out now.
Ubisoft has announced they will be making a Scott Pilgrim video game to coincide with the Universal film release in 2010. The movie, starring Michael Cera in the titular role, is of course based on the comic book, which is heavily inspired by video game culture. Before Scott can attain true happiness with his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers, he must defeat her Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends. If you are not familiar with the comic series, I URGE you now to pick it up. READ MORE »
A little plesent coversation in the midst of total destruction.
EA and Dark Horse have announced a new comic series called Mass Effect: Redemption. The narrative will bridge the gap between the first and second video games. Commander Shepard must fight for survival away from his crew on the Normandy while his close companion, Dr. Liara T’Soni, tries to bring him back. READ MORE »
Activision is teaming up with a crew of industry veterans at Twistory Studios and Image Publishing. They’ll be publishing a comic book based on the upcoming game Singularity.
The team includes David Atchinson, of the Occult Times Taskforce, Davide Fabbri, with credits from Heavy Metal and Dark Horse’s Star Wars, Christopher “mink” Morrison, whose work includes Dark Horse’s upcoming Shinjuku with Yoshitaka Amano, and Tom Mandrake, renowned artist of Batman and The Punisher. Atchinson, Fabbri and Morrison are making an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. READ MORE »
Fans of the 1963 Maurice Sednak classic children’s book are in for a treat this fall. Warner Bros. has just announced a Where the Wild Things Are video game to coincide with the feature film release. The movie adaptation is directed by Spike Jonze and releases on October 16, 2009. Expect the game to launch sometime around then.
In the video game, players assume the role of the rambunctious young Max and can explore the island of the Wild Things, journey across its dangerous terrain, overcome hazardous obstacles and battle fierce creatures. “Through their action-filled adventure, players will team-up with the Wild Things – each with their own unique skills or special talents – learn valuable new abilities and work together to find a way to safety, ” said Samantha Ryan, senior vice president, Production and Development, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Where the Wild Things Are is being developed for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 by Amaze Entertainment, a Foundation 9 studio, and for Nintendo DS by WayForward.
11-time Grammy winner Carlos Santana is set to appear in the latest installment of the Guitar Hero franchise. Santana will be an in-game character and contributes a live version of the Latin themed “No One to Depend On.”
Guitar Hero 5 will launch with a typically diverse list of songs — everything from the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty, to the White Stripes and Vampire Weekend. A new feature this time around will be the Party Play Mode, allowing players to jump in and out of songs on the fly. READ MORE »
It hasn’t taken long for EA to announce the first batch of DLC for Fight Night Round 4 — and it’s free! There are a couple of items in the pipes. By early August, Fight Night fans can expect a new training gym, new gameplay sliders, and a host of new equipment that can be used for outfitting boxers. And as cross-promotional exclusive, Xbox 360 users will receive an alternate version of Sugar Ray Leornard courtesy of Pizza Hut.
Then by early September, EA will release a controversial update that allows players to use the face buttons to throw punches instead of wielding the analog sticks with Total Punch Control precision. “Among the new content in development, our new button control scheme will give fans a choice for how they want to throw punches in the game,” says Dean Richards, senior producer of EA Sports. “We strongly believe that the refined Total Punch Control is the most intuitive way to throw punches in Fight Night Round 4, but we also want fans of the franchise to have an option.”
Fight Night Round 4 was released in North America on June 23, 2009. It is currently available for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
2K Sports has got a new NBA game in the works, and it’s not just the yearly 2K10 entry. The company has announced a partnership to co-develop NBA 2K Online with Tencent Holdings Limited, an internet portal in China. This new team will be dubbed Take-Two Asia, and will also release the game in Taiwan, South Korea and other parts of Southeast Asia. Tencent has plenty of experience in the online world. It represents China’s largest virtual community with 411 million active user accounts. By comparison, Steam has a mere 1 million users. Yikes.
NBA 2K Online will be exclusive to the Asian market. Paul Thornton, a portfolio manger, and founder of www.investorbootcamp.ca says Chinese game companies face a unique challenge. “Online gaming is growing in China versus retail sales because there is a reputation of piracy in everything from music to movies,” he says. ”This way revenues can be controlled.” Tencent is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where its shares are trading 30% higher on a year-over-year basis. With its market cap at a whopping $160.75 billion, Tencent is ten times larger than Activision Blizzard’s market cap of $15.68 billion. To be fair though, it is a holding company with diversified internet interests – Activision is focused on publishing games. READ MORE »
A short, 2D man stumbles into a tavern and dies. His body flashes and then disappears. This is your introduction to the world of Castle Crashers, a game full of self-reflexive and irreverent humour. Someone has crashed the castle and kidnapped four princesses. You must choose the Blue, Red, Green or Orange knight to go out and rescue the princesses and win them back one kiss at a time.
Castle Crashers is a classic, side-scrolling arcade game. You progress across linear levels from left to right and defeat bad guys as you go. The game has many throwbacks to the coin-op era, including a flashing finger pointing you right as the screen is cleared. A more contemporary twist has been added, as the characters level up with attributable skill points to strength, magic, defense and speed.
This is an action game with a quick pace. The game does not halt when your character gains a level; instead, it let’s you adjust your skill points between stages. Magic spells are limited to three per character with generic elemental themes such as ice for the Blue Knight and fire for the Orange Knight. As you clear stages, more characters are unlocked. I played as the Orange Knight and ran into big trouble in the lava stage as the enemies were immune to my magic attacks. Later in the game, I encountered more magic-resistant enemies. During these sections, the combat became very one-dimensional as I button mashed my way to the next stage so it’s important to keep your characters balanced if playing solo. READ MORE »
