Detective Mark Heidi - The First Case

post from Escape Games 24 on 08 November 2011 11:06:03 PM. © Escape Games 24

Detective Mark Heidi - The First Case is another Japanese point and click type hidden object games created by Rain-Lens. Try to escape the house by finding items and solving puzzles. Language barrier may be a problem. Good luck and have fun!Play This Game

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Take-Two announces further delays to XCOM, Spec
Ops

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 11:05:59 PM. © Destructoid

Take-Two announces further delays to XCOM, Spec Ops screenshot

Publisher Take-Two Interactive has announced that the forthcoming XCOM will be delayed into "fiscal year 2013" along with first-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line. This follows a positive financial report for the second quarter of 2011, but Take-Two will still announce losses for fiscal 2012 compared to 2011.

Take-Two has some big-name titles coming out in the next six months: BioShock Infinite, The Darkness II, and Max Payne 3. "Fiscal 2013" is between April 2012 and March 2013, so we could see XCOM before the summer, but I'd worry that Take-Two would move it later to avoid BioShock Infinite and maybe Grand Theft Auto V. Spec Ops: The Line is penciled in for the "first half fiscal 2013."

I'm still really keen to play XCOM: the game has had a quiet development but they had a novel presence at PAX and there's finally been some behind-the-scenes development info. That being said, some extra months would probably be welcome by developer 2K.

Take-Two Beats Q2 Expectations, But Posts Losses [Gamasutra]

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The DTOID Show: Tank Mayhem In Saints Row The
Third

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 11:05:58 PM. © Destructoid

The DTOID Show: Tank Mayhem In Saints Row The Third screenshot

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Hello again! The Destructoid Show is currently burning the midnight oil, on account of all the big releases this week. By "burning the midnight oil," I mean "staying up late and playing video games." Saints Row The Third comes out a week from today, and the folks at THQ were nice enough to let us put up some ridiculous gameplay, even though full reviews are embargoed until Friday. More of these to come.

Hey, speaking of Saints Row, Mash Tactics will be livestreaming the game tomorrow night. There'll be prizes, Jon Carnage, me, Hamza, and probably a big floppy dildo. Oh, no. I've said too much already.

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Dance Central 2, now with more Facebook

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 11:05:58 PM. © Destructoid

Dance Central 2, now with more Facebook screenshot

Dance Central 2, which released earlier this year, is following the footsteps of other games and adding Facebook integration. The app, available through Xbox's Facebook page, will allow you to track your scores, check leaderboard rankings and compare your stats to friends.

I'm not terribly competitive, so this isn't something that I get really excited about. Whenever I am given the chance to display trophies or achievements on my Facebook or Twitter page I always say no. For those of you who enjoy that competitive atmosphere however, you now have something extra you can do with Dance Central 2.

There is also a new video from Harmonix that looks at Crew Challenge, the single player campaign mode. I know the game is already out, but if you were curious about how it works, give the video a look.

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DTOID Show Extra: Alan Wake 2, Skyrim's Cows, &
Zelda 3DS

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 11:05:58 PM. © Destructoid

DTOID Show Extra: Alan Wake 2, Skyrim's Cows, & Zelda 3DS screenshot

video details and more

Hey guys! Keeping with our new experimental fragmentary format for The Destructoid Show, I got to work from home today. Which is to say that I am now a dirty, sexy webcam girl. Er. Boy.

News today: BioWare released a screenshot for their newest mystery-game, and we've also got a screenshot from Alan Wake: Night Springs. Modern Warfare 3 came out last night, and some people like it, and others hate it. What's there to talk about? Skyrim's got another trailer, and a dev-diary podcast about cows. Or something. Finally, Nintendo's releasing a hella sexy lil' 3DS to celebrate The Legend Of Zelda's 25th anniversary.

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Preview: Furmins

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 10:06:55 PM. © Destructoid

Preview: Furmins screenshot

Housemarque has been in the business for over sixteen years, but it wasn't until Super Stardust HD (back in 2007) that the Finnish developers went on to make a name for themselves. Since then they've racked up quite an impressive number of critically acclaimed hits with the apocalyptic shooter Dead Nation and one of my favorite Metroidvania-style adventures, the visually stunning Outland.

So with all this newfound pedigree, the team behind so many great downloadable titles has set out to self-publish its first title, Furmins, an action-puzzle game for iOS-enabled devices.

Furmins (iPhone, iPad [Previewed])
Developer: Housemarque
Publisher: Housemarque
Release: TBD

Upon initial glance, two things immediately caught my attention about Furmins. First, it contains the same artistic beauty that I have come to expect from Housemarque's games. The backgrounds all have a hand-painted look to them that really pops on an iPad screen. While they may be gorgeous to look at, it's the subtle effects within each background that adds to the immersion. Leaves blow gently in the backgrounds of the forest stages and the creeping mist in some of the later stages really invites an almost magical presence to the world. But then again this is a Housmarque game and if it's one thing they excel in, it's art design.

The second thing that came to my mind when playing Furmins was how much it reminded me of Angry Birds. Now depending on how you look at it that's not necessarily a bad thing, and something the guys at Housemarque don't seem to mind either. They're both puzzle games, they both make physics fun, and they both share some sort of enigmatic bird-like creature in their character design. But I'd be doing Furmins serious harm to call it an Angry Birds clone. In fact it has more in common with the phenomenal Portal series than it does with that bird-launching game.

Like the Portal series, the idea behind Furmins is to build the most logical path to the goal. The objective for each stage is to direct the ever-so-cute (just look at their faces in the accompanying screens) Furmins from one end to a glowing basket somewhere in the level. The catch is, you don't have direct control over these mystic little furballs and instead have to use any available items and -- depending on the level -- some well-timed taps to succeed.

Each stage I played presented its own unique puzzle to solve. They start off simple, where a few well adjusted planks (that bounce the Furmins through the air) well get you the result needed, but later really test your thinking prowess when elements like momentum and time delay come into play. While most of the early stages can be quickly solved, every stage contains bonus stars to collect -- all in one run -- for those looking for more complicated solutions. It get really tricky, when you're using pendulums for momentum, ice blocks to delay speed, and have to tap the screen to change the direction of moving conveyor belts in an attempt to earn a perfect three-star rating. Thankfully, there is a quick restart (for OCD types) which allows you to quickly tinker with a setup until perfect.

Furmins may not have been what I expected Housemarque to whip up next, but it (yet again) conveyed to me that they really know how to make fun, engaging experiences. Don't let the cutesy design throw you off though, while it may look like a game for your mom -- especially with the music being done by the mind behind Bejewled's seductive melodies -- Furmins' perplexing puzzles should keep those with a thirst for brainteasers quenched for quite some time.

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Peripherals: Many tentacles pimpin' on the keys

post from Destructoid on 08 November 2011 10:06:55 PM. © Destructoid

Peripherals: Many tentacles pimpin' on the keys screenshot

_{[Last week I wanted you to tell me about the awesome and/or asinine peripherals you've come across in your time as a gamer. nekobun has noticed a trend across all platforms and console generations, and writes about the keyboard add-ons that seemed to exist for almost every platform. Want to see your own blog on the front page? Write a blog on the current topic: Acquisition. -- JRo]}

I'm not sure if it was an early symptom of the writer's bug or just a fascination with adding more buttons to things, but for the longest time, I've been fascinated by the seeming inevitability that, if a gaming system comes out, someone is going to find a way to slap a QWERTY keyboard on it. More recent times have seen a rise in software or firmware based text input, and most of your modern consoles can handle text input via USB keyboard, but it's the more unique hardware solutions for which I'm a sucker.

It all started, for me, back in the days of the original, brick-style Game Boy. A spread in issue 36 of Nintendo Power (Darkwing Duck cover feature, if you want to search your archives) covered a handful of productivity-oriented GB cartridges that were forthcoming; the InfoGenius series from GameTek, and FabTek's (not related, by blood or by marriage) WorkBoy, which threw a tiny keyboard and a stand to prop up the system into the mix. WorkBoy featured many of the features that would later pop up in true PDAs, and still come with most smartphones, such as currency conversion, bank account tracking and balancing, calendar reference, and an address book. Reports vary as to how released or unreleased it was, but despite keeping my eye out for it in every Toys R Us, Kiddie City, or other purveyor of fine Nintendo goods I found myself in as a child, I never got my hands on a WorkBoy. Not like my mother would've bought it for me, anyway.

It wasn't until the Dreamcast that I'd find another console keyboard to obsess over and use for all of one game. The Dreamcast Keyboard itself was nothing particularly fancy or tailored to complement the Dreamcast's design motif, but it did allow Typing Of The Dead to happen. Easily the most ridiculous first-person, on-rails zombie slaying experience ever (save for Rock Of The Dead, but we don't talk about that horrorshow), TotD took a couple of the guys from the House Of The Dead series, strapped Dreamcasts to their backs with keyboards attached, and set you loose in a house full of nightmares to clear out, like some hell-raising Mavis Beacon. Standard grunts would take one or two words to kill, while bosses often took longer sentences that were loosely strung together, almost like a story. Proof once again that, a console generation ago, adding zombies could still make anything better.

Not overly long after the Dreamcast (especially for me, since I waited until its demise to get one on the cheap), both the Gamecube and PlayStation 2 saw keyboard-compatible games spring up, in the forms of Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II and Monster Hunter (at least, I think that's what I got it for), and a couple of accessory companies rose to the occasion. While I never got far enough into the original Monster Hunter to make much use of it, I scored a Logitech PS2 NetPlay controller for dirt cheap, and still use the USB keyboard part (which detaches from the main controller body) on my PS3, thanks to its ridiculously long cord.

ASCII's Gamecube keyboard/controller fusion, on the other hand, got plenty of use, even though I didn't end up importing one until halfway through the lifespan of Episode I & II plus. In a game dominated by halting or racist quickchat macros, and imagechats sporting clumsily kludged-together Nazi symbolism, it was nice to have a way to communicate on the fly in a somewhat coherent manner. That, and you could use it in English or Japanese characters, which came in handy sometimes with players from both sides of the Pacific sharing some servers. I was fairly disappointed that the keyboard part wasn't compatible with Animal Crossing, given my mindless devotion to that game requiring many a letter to be sent, but the controller bits are still controller bits in any game, so it's a crowd-pleaser to still bust out for Mario Kart and Smash Bros. on the Wii.

The current generation's frontrunners brought a welcome step forward in controller/keyboard integration, with the 360's Chatpad and PS3's Keypad add-ons. The rise of slide phones seems to have made the idea of a more compact keyboard more appealing, which kept both of these accessories from being ridiculously cumbersome and made them compatible with the existing controllers, which is a nice change from game keyboards past. While I've not had a chance to spend time with the PS3 keypad, and it frankly looks a bit off-putting, given its above-everything placement, the 360 Chatpad is a godsend. I've actually managed to become faster at typing with my thumbs than I am sending enough voice messages to get the same message across, and its form factor and placement stay well out of the way of anywhere that might interfere with gameplay. If the PS3 one is just as easy to use upon getting used to it, I may even ease back on my criticisms of the whole online pass system's inconvenience.

As touchscreens and voice recognition (a la Kinect) become more and more prevalent and cost-effective, I worry that full-fledged (or even half-fledged) keyboards for consoles may become irrelevant, but even if they do get segued to a software-based, touch keypads, I hope developers continue finding ways to use them as more than just code, message, and username/password entry systems.

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Nano Assault out on 3DS November 29, have some
screens

Nano Assault out on 3DS November 29, have some screens screenshot

If you're a 3DS owner starving for some new games Nano Assault could be the cure. The upcoming three-dimensional shooter follows a microscopic ship on a journey through the human body to eradicate infections and kill off deadly viruses. I had some brief hands-on time with the game at E3 and found it to be genuinely enjoyable -- if five minutes in a crowded room is anything to go by.

Unfortunately, just like every other game, Nano Assault is launching later this month and I'm not sure if it will get much pick up in such a crowded holiday release window. Hopefully its Super Stardust HD-like gameplay, pretty visuals, and unique setting will net it some fans when it launches on November 29th for $29.99.

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You should be paying attention to Rayman Origins

You should be paying attention to Rayman Origins screenshot

Rayman Origins is out next week. Sadly, yet understandably, there isn't a noticeable buzz surrounding the title -- certainly not at the level of productivity-enders Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim.

It is a full-priced 2D platformer, which rubs some people the wrong way. However, and I can't stress this enough, I'm not going to be surprised if Rayman Origins ends up being my favorite game of 2011, based on what I've played of it so far. Fan of classic Rayman or not, you owe it to yourself to try the demo.

It's pretty much happiness incarnate. Conrad will have the review up before the game hits store shelves. It's not too late to get this one on your radar.

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