Guillermo Del Toro + video games = $$$$

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/29/best-case-scenario-del-toros-lovecraftian-thq-game-in-2013/

Guillermo Del Toro's movies are well-known for his amazing grasp on storytelling and penchant for incredible special effects. If movies like "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Hellboy 2" are any indicator, Del Toro's contributions to the video game industry could be, let's say, substantial.

Speaking to MTV News, as reported by Joystiq, Del Toro notes how he and THQ are working on a very serious horror title with a lengthy development cycle - the earliest we could probably expect to see one of these titles is 2013. It'd be worth the wait, though, as Del Toro described the first project they are working on as "Lovecraftian" and a "very different kind of horror game." Having read a few of Lovecraft's works, I'm very interested to see just what exactly Del Toro has in mind and if it can at all capture the kind of uneasy, tense emotion that Lovecraft's works evoke.

On an interesting related note, I just saw over at Destructoid that THQ contacted them and said there is no official deal yet with Del Toro so...there's that. Misdirection is my guess.

Zombies invade the Old West in Red Dead Redemption's "Undead Nightmare"

Though it has been a very long time since Red Dead Redemption found its way into my 360's tray, that will all change when the Downloadable Content pack "Undead Nightmare" is released. While many people in the gaming community are getting tired of zombies, I couldn't be happier. I believe I said it right here on this blog that the addition of zombies to any game will make it better and Undead Nightmare will prove my point.

I really appreciated how down to earth and normal most of RDR seems (you know, outside the gatling gun and the cannons that never need to loaded). Most of my friends got tired of it quickly, preferring the fast paced action of GTA 4 to six-shooter gunfights. If it weren't for Halo: Reach, I'd be spending a lot of my gaming time riding the open plains. But just as much as I love its normalcy, shaking things up with an element of the supernatural is always welcome change of pace - especially if that pace is of a shambling zombie.

Two DLC packs have already been released for RDR - "Legends and Killers" pack and "Liars and Cheats" pack - but I'll be honest, neither really peaked my interest. Both offered new content for multiplayer as well as new characters and weapons, but nothing truly new. "Undead Nightmare," on the other hand, will serve up a new single player adventure as well as new weapons, zombie characters for multiplayer, zombie animals, "mythical animals" and new locations.

If you've still got a hankering for some sweet, sweet Wild West brains, check out this new video featuring "Undead Nightmare" over at Joystiq - keep an eye out for zombie bears, though.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/red-dead-redemption-undead-nightmare-trailer/

Halo: Reach - The end of an era

It’s been a long time coming. I didn’t think it would even happen, honestly. Ever since I first played “Halo: Combat Evolved” for the Xbox, I figured Microsoft would never let Bungie stop making Halo games. But Bungie, as the saying goes, saved the best for last with “Halo: Reach.” Set several years before the original Xbox hit, “Reach” follows the story of Noble team as they encounter the Covenant horde on the last days of the fortress planet Reach. Everything about the tone of Halo: Reach just oozes epic – from the intense, sweeping campaign, to the multitude of options in Matchmaking, Firefight, Theater, to the expanded Forge World to the franchise’s lengthy history, Reach is the zenith of the Halo series.

As with all Halo games, I like to start with the campaign. Though many people pan Halo’s story for being a stale, generic space marine game, I’ve always really enjoyed the lore of the universe – the brutal hierarchy of the Covenant, the various Spartan programs and its shady beginnings, or just all the incredible tale of human resilience against a seemingly unstoppable, unknowable horde. I’ll be honest – I’ve even read some of the books and out of those book, “Halo: The Fall of Reach” was probably my favorite. Though it had some mighty big expectations to live up to, from the campaign, multiplayer modes, and Forge World, Halo: Reach manages to deliver a stellar package in nearly every regard.

Now since this game has a ton of content, this will be part one of two – this part focusing mainly on the updates to the series and the campaign with my thoughts on the multiplayer, theater and Forge World in the next.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Halo series since Combat Evolved. Some of my fondest memories of college are, freshman year, sitting in the dorms on a weekday after classes, hooking my Xbox up to ResNet (thanks for the bandwith, Shippensburg University!), and engaging in tense CTF games with my hallmates. Using ResNet we could even play with people in other dorms, though we pretty much always destroyed any competition (Mowry’s got nothing on McLean 3 South). In those days, Hang ‘Em High was pretty much our DE_dust. On a side note (hopefully I don’t get too off topic) but what’s with never remaking literally my favorite map of all time, Bungie? You guys love bringing back Blood Gulch every time you put out a Halo game and you remade classics like Sanctuary and Ascension but never my favorite map. What, is Hang ‘Em High not good enough to be remade, Bungie? One of the first things I did when I booted up Reach the first time was go on the File Share and download a fan made map of Hang ‘Em High, go into a custom game and just wander around, a smile forming at the corners of my mouth as memories of battles long past flood my mind – this was where Cyan would race to grab the pistol as the beginning of a match; this was where Alex used to snipe from; the tombstones, the sky bridges, the ramp and the tunnel under the Blue(?) base and the ridge on the far wall where the needler spawned and so on and so on. It makes me wish all my hallmates from McLean had Halo: Reach and downloaded a copy of that map so I could relive all those epic afternoons. Anyway…where was I? I’ve kinda just been rambling this whole paragraph, haven’t I? As you can see, me and Halo go way back and no one would be harder on Reach for besmirching the series’ good name than I would be.

One of the things that makes Reach’s story stand apart from every other Halo title (apart from ODST but, honestly, I never played ODST because I didn’t want to spend $60 on Firefight and six hours of thrown together story), is the team dynamic of Noble squad. In Halo: CE, 2, and 3, Master Chief is in a one-on-everyone fight against the Covenant and has the weight of the universe on his shoulders – if he fails, humanity will either be absorbed into The Flood or obliterated by the Covenant. Though Noble team is in an equally dire situation – Reach is, next to Earth, supposed to be the most well guarded human colony in the universe, yet it is covertly invaded by a massive Covenant force – you never get the idea that if you succeed, evil will be vanquished. Remember, the events of Reach are long before Master Chief and the Pillar of Autumn discover the first Halo installation, and one theme is prevalent throughout each mission of Halo: Reach – humanity is losing this war.

Though you embark on numerous, equally epic missions and despite your continued success, Reach does an amazing job of never letting you forget that you’re always moments away from annihilation. Luckily, Noble team have some new tricks up their sleeve that would make good ol’ Master Chief jealous. Reach offers many new weapons like the Designated Marksmen Rifle (DMR) and (one of my favorite) grenade launcher with a special secondary EMP blast as well as new vehicles like the rocket Warthog and the Falcon (UNSC’s answer to the Banshee), the most useful new tools available to the team of Spartan-IIIs (and one Spartan-II) are armor abilities.

Replacing the cumbersome and awkward deployable items from Halo 3, armor abilities are rechargeable and offer a wide array of helpful powers. You most always start with the Sprint ability, you can swap it for the Jetpack, Active Camo, Armor Lock, Hologram, Drop Shield and the Evade (though that last one is normally only an Elite ability).

Without giving away too much, Halo: Reach’s campaign both succeeds and fails. While it is full of epic sequences and sets up many, diverse missions, the campaign as a whole isn’t all that memorable and the end is rather anti-climactic. However, while the ending may be anti-climactic (though not nearly as bad as Halo 2’s ending), the ending serves its purpose by reinforcing the notion that was hammered in throughout the game – humanity, no matter how many victories are garnered, is all but doomed. Despite all your struggles, despite all your desperate attempts and successes on supposed suicide missions, humanity is still on the verge of being wiped out by the Covenant. Missions like Tip of the Spear and the one where you go into outer space (see, I can’t even remember its name) provide plenty of variety to the standard run-and-gun gameplay but lack the blockbuster moments that make any one mission stand out.

Keep checking back for part two of my Halo: Reach dissection. It’ll probably be up some time next week, so in the mean time watch out for my next post – my thoughts on the newly released, 10-minute first look at Bioshock Infinite gameplay. It’s wild and definitely has a Bioshock vibe to it but that’s all I’m gonna say about it for now.

Left 4 Dead comic adds some style to the zombie apocalypse

You know what? I'm gonna stop trying to write something witty here because I really want to get back to reading this. I don't know how I missed this (I must be slipping in my old age) but Left 4 Dead's official blog, www.l4d.com, recently started running a comic called The Sacrifice which details the events leading up to the most recent L4D2 DLC, The Passing. I'm not sure how long ago the first part went up (I'm guessing a week or so) but part 2 dropped yesterday I have to play catch-up.

In The Passing, we find that everyone's favorite Vietnam vet Bill has died and the other Survivors from L4D (Louis, Zoe and Franics) help the current Survivors escape a small town via a bridge. I'm part way through Part 1 so far but it has been a great read so far - funny banter between the Survivors, a little backstory and plenty of zombie slaying. The art style also really lends itself well to the gritty, zombie guts soaked world.

Also, it's been over a week and I feel like a bum but I'm still working on my Halo: Reach story. There's just so much to that game it's hard to even know where to begin when I play it, let alone try and dissect just how Bungie was able infuse that much awesome into a single 360 disc.

Oh wow, like the absent-minded idiot I am, I nearly forgot to include the link to the Left 4 Dead comic - http://www.l4d.com/comic/

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow should be the God of War 3 Xbox 360 never had

With Halo: Reach taking up nearly all my attention (look for more on that later) and the rest of that attention span being used looking forward to Fallout: New Vegas, it’s hard to imagine getting excited about another game. But there is another.

Though shooters and open world games usually get first dibs on my attention, one game has been constantly making me take notice – Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I usually find action/adventure games pretty shallow and get bored of them pretty quickly. Lords of Shadow, on the other hand, seems to be an adventure on a massive scale, showcasing numerous types of enemies, huge landscapes and a twisting storyline. The Lords of Shadow have threatened the alliance between the Heavens and humanity and only Gabriel Belmont can save the world from the ever encroaching darkness.

In his quest to conquer the dark forces of the Lords, Belmont will be aided by the Combat Cross – an upgradeable whip weapon that can also be used to rappel, cross gaps and climb. With elements of action, platforming and puzzle-solving, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is shaping up to be the action game that I had wished Dante’s Inferno was.

Check out this video, originally posted by Joystiq from the Tokyo Game Show, to see just what kind of monsters, beasts, demons and other manner of ghastly beings will be standing in Belmont’s way. I just hope I’m sick enough of Halo: Reach by October 5.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/new-castlevania-lords-of-shadow-trailer-is-positively-nuts/

Expanding Borderlands: Viva la robolution!

If games were based solely on their inherent replayability (that is to say that the multiplayer aspect of a game isn’t the only reason to keep playing it), then “Borderlands” would be one of the best games ever made. (That’s some unbiased journalism right there, folks.) It’s very easy to get into, the controls are familiar and responsive, the world is colorful (not to mention there is a lot of it to explore) plus there is a ton of loot on Pandora just waiting to be found. Not only that, but Gearbox has supported Borderlands with a bevy of DLC – The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Not only do these DLCs give gamers more of a look into the denizens of Pandora but they also are hilarious, fun to play and offer extras like a safe for extra items (Underdome) and a new level cap (Secret Armory).

Fans of Borderlands are in luck because Gearbox isn’t done yet. Along with a patch that is due out later in September, the game will also be receiving its fourth DLC pack at the end of the month – Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution. Fans who finished the game know about the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap that mysteriously appeared once the story was completed and now more details about the deadly, but plucky, robot are surfacing. Hyperion, one of the many gun manufacturers, set the ninja Claptrap out to do its dirty work but it was smart – too smart. It saw the way Claptraps all over Pandora were being mistreated and turned his robotic brethren against their corporate masters. With a full on robotic revolution on their hands, Hyperion calls in the Vault hunters as well as its own army of mercenaries to clean up the mess.

New Robot Revolution will not only feature new weapons and enemies – many being familiar enemies with Claptrap twists like Skag-Traps and Rakk-Traps – but also new storage deck upgrades, 20 new missions, 6 new areas and possibly also new fast travel locations (a first for Borderlands DLC).

That’s not all though. At about the same time the DLC is released (perhaps before its release) Gearbox will also be releasing another patch for Borderlands. If you’ve ever played The Zombie Island or The Secret Armory DLC and then tried to go back to the main game, you’ll notice that your character is significantly stronger than pretty much everything else. Luckily this update will balance the game’s stats with the player across all DLC packs and the main game. This patch will also increase the level cap from 50 (61 with Secret Armory) to 58 (69 with Secret Armory). Hopefully this means I’ll finally have a leg up on Crawmerax the Invincible – but probably not.

Also on a side-Borderlands-note, I recently bought Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and hard doesn’t even start to describe it. Well not so much hard as it is incredibly trying and somewhat annoying. Featuring three arenas, you’ll need to survive five rounds in each arena to complete the first tournament. Oh but did I mention that each round is made up of five waves (Starter, Gun, Horde, Badass and Boss) complete with a different boss at the end of each? It boils down to 25 waves per arena – not so bad right? But wait…I beat all three and didn’t get all the achievements? Oh sorry, forgot to mention there’s a larger tournament. Well that first one wasn’t so bad let’s get on into the larger tourney…OMGWTF 20 rounds per arena now?!? You’re serious?? 100 waves per arena?? With ever-increasing enemy stats as well as up to four rules which can be anything from no shields to reduced gravity, the larger tournaments are no joke. I’m gonna be honest (and you have no idea how hard this is to admit) but I haven’t even beat one yet. And you know what, I don’t even want to try anymore.

I got to the tenth round in The Gully’s larger tournament before the rules it stuck me with were Vampire (constantly draining health, you only get some back from getting a kill), Naked (No shield, [very] slowly regenerated health) and something like Rocket Specialty (increased damage for rockets [which are, for some reason, essentially useless in Borderlands] and decreased for anything else) before losing and getting sent back to round nine where I promptly shut my 360 off. I appreciate the challenge Gearbox tried to present with the Underdome but the rewards are too few (you don’t earn XP in arena matches and the weapons you’re given at the end of a round are usually crappy whites or greens) compared to the extreme difficulty for me to spend much more time on it. With a new DLC pack coming out at the end of September and a little game called Halo: Reach next week, the Underdome will most likely remain unfinished until I forgot how hard it is and give it another go.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero delivers a small taste

“Dead Rising 2: Case Zero” is a unique experiment by Capcom – not quite a standalone game and not exactly a demo either, it will be interesting to see if companies copy this effort in the future. Set three years before the events of Dead Rising 2 in the small town of Still Creek, Case Zero gives gamers an idea of what they’re in for when Dead Rising 2 is released at the end of September.

Though it isn’t part of the game proper, Case Zero is really more demo than Arcade title. It is still found under the Arcade section of the Xbox 360 Marketplace and will cost you 400 MS points ($5) but offers a look into how the zombie apocalypse has changed since the Willamette Mall incident – which is to say, it hasn’t changed much.

Case Zero begins with Chuck Greene pulling into the tiny town of Still Creek, looking to gas up his truck and continue on with his daughter, Katey, who, we find out, has been infected with the zombie virus and needs shots of the drug Zombrex every 12 hours lest she joins the undead masses. Once Chuck gets to Still Creek, however, his truck is stolen along with his last dose of Zombrex.

Aside from the new weapon combination system (more on that in a bit), not much has really changed since with the series’ formula from the original game. The controls are the same (unfortunately), you still need to rescue hapless survivors, and you still need to struggle against a time constraint. Though it’s a fun little game that offers a couple hours of play, I’m not coming away from Case Zero very impressed.

First off, if you read my last article you’ll know I couldn’t stand the way Dead Rising forced you to play against the clock and, more than anything, Case Zero made me remember how much I hated the aspect of the series. It works for this game, since its 12-hour day amounts to only a couple hours of actual gameplay. A 72-hour game with these same constraints in place, however, is beyond frustrating. I don’t want to be made to complete objectives when the game tells me I should – I’d much rather explore and discover my own path through a game. Not only that, but the structure of these games forces you to play it over and over again if you want to experience everything and max out your character’s level. A game’s replayability should come from me wanting to play it multiple times, not needing to play it multiple times.

Thankfully, the weapon creation system and methods of earning PP (read: experience points) is actually really fun and it would be a blast to see just how many items are going to be available for use in Dead Rising 2. Case Zero offers just enough combos to wet your appetite. The spiked bat (nails + baseball bat) is a great all purpose weapon and others like the paddlesaw (kayak paddle + chainsaw) and the electric rake (rake + car battery) offer a glimpse into the crazy couplings that are found in the full game. The scratch card/combo card aspect of the creation system is still pretty ambiguous to me, though. When you make a new weapon, you earn its scratch card. How it turns into a combo card (and subsequently unlocks that weapons alternate attack) is sort of a mystery – do I just need to level up to unlock them or is it dependant on how much I use them or something else completely? It should also be noted that Case Zero will carry over your stats to Dead Rising 2 up to Level 5.

There are plenty of tasks on Chuck’s plate that need tending to during the 12 hours he is stuck there. Not only does he need to find Zombrex, but he must also build a dirt bike to escape town as well as lead numerous stranded folks to the safe house. Luckily, the survivor AI is greatly improved over the first game. I rarely had to stop and rescue someone from the clutches of a zombie and they generally kept pace with me as I took a leisurely stroll (seriously, Chuck is pretty slow) back to the safe house.

Speaking of the safe house reminds me of my second biggest complaint – the loading times. Oh my god, the loading times. I hope you don’t mind sitting through one every time you enter and exit the safe house and every time a cinematic starts and stops (and there are A LOT of them), because you’re going to be spending a lot of time staring at loading screens.

Though Capcom improved Dead Rising 2 in many areas (such as adding more save slots), numerous others needed work as well that went untouched. The controls are still clunky, as are Chuck’s actions in general. There’s still no good way of interacting with items that are too close together (i.e. there’s no good way of indicating which specific item you want to pick up/use). Even though Case Zero isn’t definitely indicative of what will be in Dead Rising 2, there is still no voice-overs for survivors or anyone, really, outside of cutscenes – all the info you get from side characters is still in text form, text form you’re expected to read and click through in real time (read: with zombies breathing down your neck). Survivors do talk, but only in that they repeat the same couple one-liners over and over and over again in the safe house (“I am so sad,” “I just want to cry” – I could only imagine that Katey was hoping to turn into a zombie so she could finally shut up these jabbering, useless morons).

All told, I’m actually still on the fence about buying Dead Rising 2. Case Zero was fun enough but I honestly hate the time limit. The weapon combos are fun but who has the time to experiment if you’re constantly worrying about an impending deadline when the game just ends and you have to start over? Being able to play story cooperatively with someone else adds a lot to the equation and will probably be the deciding factor in a purchase because knowing that the controls haven’t been updated puts a severe damper on any hopes I had for the multiplayer. Overall, Case Zero is a great little appetizer until Dead Rising 2 comes out and anyone thinking they might buy the full game or just wants to bust a few zombie skulls does not want to overlook this unique Arcade title.

Honestly though, the biggest factor in whether I buy Dead Rising 2 will be how much I’m still playing Halo: Reach at the end of September.

Dead Space 2 will have multiplayer, most likely 'Soldier vs. Necromorph'

Remember how amazing it was the first time you played"Left 4 Dead's" Versus mode and got to maul a Survivor as one of the game's infected abominations? The concept of "human vs. monster" multiplayer, that was also used in "Singularity," will allegedly be making its way to one of the most anticipated sequels in recent memory, "Dead Space 2." Though the Soldier vs. Necromorph multiplayer has yet to be confirmed by EA, they have confirmed that multiplayer will be featured in Dead Space 2.

With the sequel taking place on The Sprawl, a giant space station that housed thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of humans before it was infected by the Necromorphs, there should be plenty of oppurtunities for large multiplayer maps. Dead Space 2 is shaping up to be an improvement over its predecessor in nearly every way and the possibility of slicing up soldiers as Necromorphs will make waiting for its early 2011 release date unbearable.

Be on the lookout for my Dead Rising 2: Case Zero review later today.