Amy Developer Plays Down ICO Comparisons

The latest footage of VectorCell's upcoming survival horror Amy is more than a little reminiscent of the highly regarded PS2 classic ICO, but there's more to it than sugary-sweet hand-holding.

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Everyone wants a new car...how about three

by: Sean Cahill
NEWS - SimBin studios is giving every gamer what they need:  A brand new set of cars!  Before you start counting up all of the times you're going to roll through a dealership and pick out cars, the asterisk is, of course, that the three new cars available are for RaceRoom Online.  A free of charge game will be released on November 10, complete with the DLC that is available at the same time.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/Everyone-wants-a-new-carhow-about-three/Item2
4642.aspx

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Saints Row: The Third brings pimps, gimps, Burt
Reynolds

Here's a new trailer for Saints Row: The Third and I think you know what to expect by now. It's yet more utter stupidity and baudy nonsense, punctuated by ... wait ... wait is that Burt Reynolds? Yes it is!

Oh for crying out loud, what doesn't this game have?

Oh right ... decorum.

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Preview: Blacklight: Retribution

Blacklight: Tango Down was a lightweight, budget-priced first-person shooter that sought to offer a full-budget experience. It fell short of expectations, but the free-to-play sequel has started to make a showing recently. I got to put my hands on the game and see how the offering is shaping up so far.

Blacklight: Retribution closed beta (PC)
Developer: Zombie Studios
Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Release: TBA 2012

We've already told you about a limited encounter with the game before. This time, I was able to play over three maps, and four modes. There was one map that took place in a warehouse area, complete with interior and exterior areas. Another map was on a construction site in the middle of a city, and the last one was in a blockaded-off block or two of a city.

The nice thing about each map is that, though they seemed small at first, there is a good deal of verticality to each map, with paths leading to higher and lower areas. In addition to this, both the warehouse and the city block maps had shortcuts that could be closed or opened by players.

The modes are pretty standard as well. There's the deathmatch, along with its team counterpart, king of the hill, and domination, or point control. I think the domination mode stood out the most, emphasizing a couple of features of Retribution and requiring more strategy. On every map, there would be three points that you could capture. You can do this the normal way by just standing near the point 'til the meter fills up. You can also hack the point, starting up a quick minigame where you match numbers, and capture the point in a fraction of the time as long as you don't fail or get interrupted while occupied.

Blacklight: Retribution feels fast -- like a good mix between an old-school twitch shooter, like Counter Strike, meshed with the pacing from newer shooters like Call of Duty. This is in part due to the return and use of the Hyper Reality Visor from the first game.

Using it allows you to see all the players in your line of sight, at the cost of terrain detail. Because of this, there's not a lot of running around aimlessly looking for a fight. It's easy to run at someone, and there's a pressing sense of needing to keep moving before someone catches you. When you do catch up to someone, it begins to feel a lot more classic, aiming going fast, and movement light.

Thankfully, the visor does not feel overpowered or game breaking, nor does it feel underutilized like it was in the first game. This is in part due to the new gameplay additions, one being the new armories scattered throughout levels. These always show up in your visor, and allow you to purchase health, ammo, or new heavy weaponry using points you earn from achievements in the match.

This gives the game some of the feeling of something like Counter Strike by rewarding you for performance while still in the match.

Of course, that's not to say they tossed away all the customization from the first game in favor of the Counter Strike model. The character customization is back, and better than ever. There is still the system where you can build a gun from a series of parts, and it functions almost identically to how it was in Tango Down. Stats for the weapons are a lot clearer to see this time and are measured in the typical ways, such as damage, spread, and rate of fire.

In addition to the gun customization, there is also character customization, and true customization at that, starting with a choice that few other shooters offer, gender. After choosing if you want curves or not, you can choose between armor parts that not just affect your appearance, but also how much health you have, how fast you run, and even how long your visor lasts. There are other aesthetic customization options here too, such as the character's voice, taunt gesture, and armor camouflage.

A skill system is in place which dictates what support items you can use, and to what proficiency. Here you could learn how to use things like emp grenades, or better knives. I couldn't see the full breadth of everything available at higher levels, but it appears to offer a good deal of specialization. You could go straight CQC, and ditch grenades in favor of knives plus a riot shield, or even a powerful breach hammer if you had enough points. What items show up in the armories through the level can even be customized as well, though only the five starting items were available for me. 

There were a few things that seemed to be off in the game though that still need to be ironed out. Some of the gun types seem under shadowed by others, such as submachine guns outshining assault rifles, the breach hammer being a one-hit kill seemed overpowered given how easily you could rush up on someone from behind. There were a couple of glitches I stumbled upon, too.

However, the game looks great and appears to be shaping up well. Some others here at Destructoid are going to get to check out the game in the near future, and you'll be able to hear what they think of the it soon enough.

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CastleVille Preview (Facebook)

If FrontierVille was crossed with Tangled, it?d probably look a whole lot like CastleVille, the next big release from Zynga. It?s a game that offers some familiar core gameplay mixed with new, and in some cases quite interesting features, and wraps it all up in a very Disney-inspired fantasy world.

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Rainbow Six: Patriots announced for PS3, Xbox
360, PC

No, Ubisoft did not decide to randomly abandon the Rainbow Six series. Rather, the company has announced the newest entry, Rainbow Six: Patriots, and hinted at a new direction for this first-person shooter due out sometime in 2013.

The press release makes it sound rather ridiculous, so it should be quite a lot of fun seeing how these promises are kept. With an "unprecedented level of humanity," Patriots will center around the revolutionary group True Patriots which seeks to reclaim the U.S. from corrupt politics and corporate special interests.

More details are coming in the December issue of Game Informer.

TERRORISM HITS HOME IN TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW 6® PATRIOTS VIDEO GAME FROM UBISOFT®

SAN FRANCISCO – November 3, 2011 – Today, Ubisoft announced the development of the latest edition of its best-selling Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 franchise, Rainbow 6 Patriots. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal with the support of Ubisoft Toronto and Red Storm, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots revolves around a dynamic single-player storyline that captures the reality of modern-day terrorism and allows players to experience it from multiple characters’ perspectives. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots is due for release on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC in 2013.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 franchise has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and has been hailed as one of the best first-person shooter series of all time.  The games are known for depicting high-tech counter-terrorist operations set within the Tom Clancy’s game world.  With Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, Ubisoft is building upon the success of the franchise while also taking it in a bold new direction. 

“Terrorism has evolved, and so has Rainbow 6. In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, all the team play, tactics, and realism that fans of the series love have been coupled with an exciting new narrative direction,” said David Sears, creative director at Ubisoft. “This adds an unprecedented level of humanity that will make Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots an extremely tense and immersive experience.”

In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, Team Rainbow faces a new and very real threat called the “True Patriots,” a highly-trained, well-organized revolutionary group that claim the American government is irrevocably corrupted by greedy politicians and corporate special interests.  The True Patriots will do whatever it takes to reclaim their country.  Playing as Team Rainbow, players will face critical scenarios that will require them to make tough ethical decisions in order to stop this new breed of terrorists.

In addition to the immersive single-player storyline, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots will introduce a huge variety of new innovative co-op and multi-player experiences. Players will be rewarded for working as a team and mastering the game’s new features that enhance communication and tactical execution between teammates. Success will come from a mix of split-second decision making and working to coordinate attacks against the enemy.

Additional details on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots can be found in an exclusive cover story in the December 2011 issue of Game Informer Magazine, available this month.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, please visit www.rainbow6.com and “like” the game on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Rainbow6

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HD remake of Dreamcast shmup Under Defeat planned

video details and more

A very random, but very welcome piece of news -- it's been announced that the 2D/3D Dreamcast shmup Under Defeat will be revived and updated via an HD port to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

During a time where SEGA was sadly forced to exit the hardware market and end support of its last console, Under Defeat was one of the many shmups that small companies in Japan made for the Dreamcast, keeping the console alive for fans and the games gaining cult status. With small amounts of copies produced, unsurprisingly all of these games have become very rare and sought-after items. Just saw a copy going for a whopping 240 bucks!!

For those who haven't played the game, Under Defeat in many ways is a fairly traditional shmup, but there were a few things they did to mix things up. First, though essentially a 2D shooter, the top-down view is at a slight angle, providing a 3D perspective with a few 3D elements thrown in for good measure, such as passing over projectiles.

However, the most significant aspect of the game was the sheer amount of unlockable bonus content available. There are art galleries, a practice mode, viewable replays of no-death runs and advanced scoring techniques, plus the ability to save your very own replays for the first time ever in the shmup genre, and from different camera angles too. Finally there's the secret standalone version of the second loop, reserved for the most capable of players, with mirrored layouts, new firing patterns, and changes in stage appearances, essentially giving you two games in one.
 
This new HD version will also include an original remix mode, all in glorious widescreen, and a Tate option, allowing you to rotate the picture 90 degrees for a more authentic arcade feel. Furthermore, though no details exist right now, Famitsu says there's gonna be a badass limited edition to come as well.

The scheduled release date thus far is spring next year. Whether or not it'll make its way this time remains to be seen, but given the amount of Japanese shmups I've seen come over during this generation, something tells me it very well might. Anyone feel the same?

Shoot 'em up Under Defeat being revived as Under Defeat HD [Famitsu]

When the small, independent development house G.rev released Border Down to a starved fan base of Dreamcast owners just two and a half years ago, they surely never dreamed that it would be hailed years later by genre diehards as one of the greatest shooters of all time. But fate has a way of surprising us, and G.rev finds the pressure weighs heavy on them to follow up. Showing nothing but loyalty for their devoted fan base, G.rev has chosen the Dreamcast as the home for their latest shoot-'em-up, Under Defeat, a gritty and realistic helicopter shooter with all the polish we've come to expect.

Rumored to be the final release for Sega's tenacious last console, Under Defeat pushes the aging hardware to new heights. Set in an alternate reality resembling the WWII era, replete with some stylish retro designs, it can be a sight to behold. The level of detail is unprecedented, with screen-shaking explosions that scatter debris across the screen, leaving trails of black smoke as flaming wreckage slams apart as it collides with ground. A far cry from the small "popcorn" explosions that litter most shooters, Under Defeat's intense effects pack a gratifying whallop that makes you feel good about the havoc you've wreaked. It's hard not to smile with satisfaction as you watch a massive battleship explode, smolder and then sink into the sea as the water sent upward in the blast trickles back down, spattering off your helicopter's rotors. It's these fine brushstrokes that make the action a joy to behold. Indeed, I would say that Under Defeat could well be the most visually stunning game in its genre, on any platform.

Beneath the stylish-yet-realistic design and amazing attention to detail lurks a game of strikingly old-fashioned sensibilities. While other recent shooters feature complex scoring gimmicks that will reward savvy players with exponentially better scores, Under Defeat is balanced so that the focus is never shifted from destruction and survival. Sure, it has some scoring hooks to give skilled players that extra edge, but they never take over the game like in so many other shooters. While this might mean sacrificing some of the deeper strategies seen in other shooters, the fact remains that it's an immensely rewarding game to tackle, with enough technique to it to motivate players to practice its stages over and over.

Under Defeat digs up a seldom used format for its action. While most shooters retain a completely top-down, or completely side-view perspective, Under Defeat instead opts for a slightly angled top-down view that lends some 3-D perspective (although movement is still 2D), like RayStorm, Silpheed, or the recent Nanostray. In this case, though, the viewing angle is gentler and the monitor is aligned vertically (tall and narrow) which is a nice compromise and keeps the view from being too disorienting. G.rev also exploits this perspective by tossing in a few 3D elements (you can actually pass over low-flying projectiles) but it still retains its 2D feel.

As in Psikyo's Zero Gunner 2, your 'copter can be rotated to fire in different directions. However in this case you're only given about a 60 degree range of movement, as opposed to 360, and you can snap very quickly into front, left, and right firing positions. This keeps things much faster-paced and more focused than Psikyo's game, and lends itself well to the Raiden-like firing patterns. A rechargeable "option" weapon can also be summoned for a short burst of extra firing powers. Different options can be selected by picking up power-ups that change between three types as the hover around the screen, a nice tip of the hat to the old Seibu and Toaplan shooties so many of us grew up on. Oh, and did I mention the megabombs? Where most recent shooters have neutered the super-attacks, Under Defeat offers some truly earth shattering pyrotechnics that can completely devastate your opponents.

Composer Shinji Hosoe (Dragon Spirits, Ridge Racer) has done a very nice "arranged" soundtrack, offered as an option alongside the original. These studio-recorded versions of the songs feature some nice live guitar work and make for a big improvement over the MIDI tunes of the arcade incarnation. The music itself is very retro-style "shooter pop" of the sort that used to be the norm in the early 90s. It seems slightly out of place juxtaposed with the gritty war setting, but it's energetic and catchy, and grew on me quickly. In fact the dramatic music leading into the last level absolutely blew me away, conjuring up memories of some of Motoi Sakuraba's finer moments. Those who paid extra for the "Limited Edition" package are also treated to an exclusive soundtrack CD, featuring the arranged versions of the songs from the DC port, as well as a half-dozen remixes in different musical styles.

In recent years, Dreamcast has been treated as something of a dumping ground for barebones ports to be devoured by the hardcore devotees while more complete versions a readied for market on GameCube and PS2. Fortunately, G.rev is not content to gyp its fans in this way, and offers up a hardy serving of bonus content. Besides the re-vamped soundtrack, there are also 5 unlockable art galleries full of renders, concept art, character portraits, and splash screens. There's a very helpful practice mode that lets you tackle any part of any level at your leisure with any set of options, perfect for trying to find the best strategy to tackle a nasty boss. Even better, players can save their own replays to their memory cards and play them back later. There's even an option to watch the replays from different camera angles; a first for the genre. For the uninitiated, there's a set of no-death replays, as well as a better set of replays demonstrating advanced scoring techniques to be unlocked later.

In practice, the most substantial unlockable goodie is a stand-alone version of the second loop. In normal play, the second loop is reserved only for the few who can complete its 5 stages without continuing, and earn a 95% contribution score in every level; an elite cross-section of players. The second loop offers a substantial amount of change, featuring mirrored layouts, new firing patterns, and a drastically different appearance (imagine seeing the snowy wasteland of the fourth stage in a colorful autumn setting). By offering this as a stand-alone mode, complete with its own high-score tables, it gives players a whole new arrangement of the game to tackle. G.rev has done a fantastic job of bolstering a great game with some meaty extra content, making sure players will get their money's worth for paying those hefty import prices.

Under Defeat doesn't turn the genre on its ear. It doesn't have the craziest bullet-count, or the most complex score-multiplier mechanics. But it serves as a reminder of why we all fell in love with those old shooting games to begin with. It's an approachable, rewarding, and challenging game of pure action and reflexes of the sort that hardcore fans as well as the casual player will be able to pick up and enjoy right away. It's simply a highly polished package that gets the formula right, and damn it, this game makes me happy.

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99 Bricks - Legend of Garry

99 Bricks: Legend of Garry is sequel of 99 Bricks addicting and challenging Tetris style tower building physics based puzzle game online at GAMESO. Help Garry on his quest to save the land of Brickonia through 24 levels. Or try to build as high as you can in the classic mode in this epic sequel to 99 Bricks. Use all your building skills in this physics based game to reach the top. Good luck and

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/escapegames24/~3/DASzj4LRT40/99-bricks-legend-of-g
arry.html

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PAX East Registration is open, go buy your ticket

PAX East 2012 registration has opened as of today, November 3, so you may want to grab up a pass before they sell out. The expo will be happening April 6th-8th in Boston with one day passes going for $35 and three day passes costing $65. They have even made deals with local hotels so you can book your room (or rooms if you're going as a group) at a discounted rate.

It's PAX, hard to say anything else. There will be fun and awesome in ample supply. The best part is that tickets and hotels really aren't that expensive. Granted the entire trip will take a hefty chunk out of your bank account, especially if you fly, but this is PAX, so its worth it.

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MMO Stories: Ode to Cheddar Bacon

_{[For his MMO Story from last week's Bloggers Wanted, Revuhlooshun tells us about how his friend pulled off some incredible stuff in FFXI while under the influence. Remember kids: Destructoid doesn't endorse illegal activities. Winners don't do drugs! (Except this guy, apparently.) Want to see your own blog on the front page? Write a blog on the current topic: Peripherals. -- JRo]}

I spent countless nights on Final Fantasy XI when I was still in high school. For far longer than I should have been, most times. Some days I'd just sit in class a pile of dumb meat afterwards, thinking only about the incredible shit that had happened only a few hours ago, before I had to pull myself out of the house and rejoin society temporarily.

I can remember one time in particular, involving a fight to the death with everyone's favorite summon from FFVIII, Diabolos, where I spent every class wanting nothing more than to go home and turn the game back on. By the time I was back home, I was already rummaging through the names of my friends list to see if anyone was online, only to find the man responsible for perhaps one of the greatest stories I have yet to tell.

“Dude, Ark, that shit was crazy last night!”

“…What are you talking about?”

“The Diabolos fight. You saved us. We set a server record!”

“…Man I was so high last night. What happened?”

I played Final Fantasy XI for 4 years, since the beginning of its PS2 launch (Asura server, a level 75 Samurai named Bunnie – yes, Bunnie, it’s a long story). I had the PS2 HDD, mainly for the SOCOM II maps that you had to hunt down on a disc that came with OPM, and to install Resident Evil: Outbreak, hoping it’d make the game at least a little more bearable (hint: it didn’t). I dropped over 530 days worth of play time before I gave up the game, back during when it was a son of a bitch that spat upon anybody carrying on them notions of “going alone” or “having fun” while playing it. The fun of the game came from being ground up and tossed about – if you could survive it, then that was where the fun came. It was a hard, stupid game that made you work for everything. At the same time, you also appreciated everything, and it made all the high, end-level stuff more prestigious than soloing for it like in other MMOs.

I spent a lot of time with a Red Mage by the name of Arkan. We both were pretty active in the end game scene, and were rather top players in our respective jobs (if I may say so myself). We also got along great. We’d hop from Linkshell to Linkshell, joining different guilds but always ending up together and spending our free time doing shit. His real name was very similar to that of a certain fast food personality, and we used to call him Cheddar Bacon just for laughs.

On top of being an awesome guy and an astounding Red Mage, he was also one of the biggest potheads I have ever met. By the age of 25, he sounded like Louis Armstrong with a pretzel caught in his throat. The man couldn’t cook anything for his life unless he was putting weed into it. But he was hilarious nonetheless, and I always enjoyed his antics.

I also enjoyed how he became a fucking God whenever he was high as a kite. As someone who has never smoked marijuana before, and really has never had an interest in partaking in recreational drugs, I must say: that shit honed him like a Tibetan monk. You would think it’d be the opposite, but it turned him into Luke Skywalker when it came time to get things done.

A lot of people criticized FFXI for its grueling leveling, its harsh exp penalties, and its forced group play. One thing it doesn’t get a lot of credit for are its story and its missions. They’re not just WoW-like quests where you talk to some NPC, fetch some crap, and then get some gold – they’re full-fledged cutscenes with recurring characters and plot arcs. It has a Final Fantasy-caliber plot, and if I am allowed to say so: the greatest Final Fantasy story ever told (though this is an unfair accolade as its plot is gigantic and ever expanding). Its missions are elaborate and theatric, with fights aboard airships against Ultima and Omega one moment to even duking it out with Bahamut himself the next.

One includes Diabolos. Who is an asshole. He can randomly absorb a certain amount of damage from time to time, and he can cast an array of dark magic such as bio and blind. He has a move called Nightmare, with puts everyone around him to sleep while also eating away at their HP. You fight him atop a floating plane with segments that randomly fall out from under you. He packs an additional move called Camisado, which can knock you off and instantly kill you. He’ll also drain everyone’s HP around him if he’s feeling a little thirsty from all the ass whipping he’s dealing out.

The key to beating him is being able to spot when he’s about to belt out something wicked, and stunning him accordingly. This requires near perfection, as it only takes one Nightmare to end the whole charade as he then picks off your team one by one.

Suffice to say, me and my party didn’t exactly nail it on our first try.

Or our second. Or our third. Or our ninth.

So we called Arkan for some help. We went back and escorted him through the proceeding dungeon, until we had regrouped at the chamber to face off against the prick for the 10th straight time. Long story short: shit hit the fan right as Diabolos was about to die. We either had people dead asleep or dead on the floor below.

Except Cheddar Bacon.

I can get into the details of just what he did, but only the people stupid enough to play FFXI for more than a day would understand what I was saying. Simply put: he managed to stun and evade every attack that came his way while jumping and dodging each evaporating tile in a sadistic game of Twister long enough to cut his balls off and feed them back to the thing.

All while we were either in a dying slumber or strewn along the floor underneath him like a kicked rug.

Suddenly, the fighting stopped. Everyone put away their weapons, the screen turned black, and a new cutscene played. The chat log then filled with a jubilant fanfare of OMG’s, WTF’s, and enough Yeses to put a porn star to shame. We then left the arena, quickly healed ourselves of all the damage and status ailments, and huddled about outside for a good 5 or 10 minutes talking about what we just saw. It was a long night – longer than I should have been awake for, once again. The energy was still pumping in us though. Why stop now? Let’s go do more missions! To which the conversation then turned to Arkan:

“Nah…I think I’m gonna go smoke another bowl. I’ll catch you guys tomorrow.”

We stood and stared at each other for a few moments after he signed off, somewhat unsure if we’d make it without him, but more unsure of what had happened.

Until we realized he single handily won that fight while stoned off his ass.

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