Namco Bandai to co-publish Digital Extremes' Star
Trek

Hot off The Darkness II, it's been announced that Namco Bandai has signed with Paramount Pictures to co-publish and distribute the upcoming Star Trek in development at Digital Extremes for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. This co-op game is set to come out in Q1 of 2013, prior to J.J. Abrams' next movie hitting theaters on May 17.

Though I'm traditionally wary of videogames even remotely attached to films, it's hard for me not to be excited about the game. It's got an original story, lets you play as Spock and Kirk, and you're fighting to stop a "legendary enemy race." Even if things go sour, Star Trek should be interesting at the very least.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Clueless Gaijin Gaming: Bakuden Unbalance Zone
(1994)

Most of my PC Engine game coverage here relies on the Magic Engine emulator -- I have my PC gamepad configured to take screenshots with one of the shoulder buttons, which makes putting these posts together a lot easier than it would have been when this was current technology.  It works pretty well most of the time, but I do occasionally run across a game that doesn't run properly under emulation -- and such a game is Sony's Bakuden Unbalance Zone, a 1994 Super CD-ROM format title that's certainly one of the odder titles I've sampled.  It opens with a few corporate logos, notable mostly for the fact that Sony's own Playstation console was due to hit shelves in the not-too-distant future, but here they were, if only to send off the aging competition:



Sony's partner, Amuse Produce House, was not, as one might assume, a greengrocer, but a music and movie production company that's still around today.  This much is fairly clear, but as we get into the game proper, things get decidedly strange.  You know that part in Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction where the marble busts sing a song?  Think of that, except with scribble-bodied Japanese stereotypes: 




After this musical interlude, we get to the actual title screen:


As gameplay starts, we find ourselves in our adolescent hero's room, complete with what appear to be a Sailor Mercury poster and a Nintendo Famicom console running Super Mario Bros.:



Our man is clearly one of us -- a gamer, a fanboy, an otaku:


And then... my trusty emulator gives up, hanging on a black screen that it never quite gets past.  But I was able to run the game on authentic hardware to see what this is all about; my remaining thoughts will, however, not be illustrated.

Bakuden Unbalance Zone is basically an adventure game, though it's similar in style to a digital comic.  Our hero navigates a map -- though progression seems to be linear -- and enters a variety of "zones", each tossing him into a different hazardous situation.  The interface is quite limited -- there's no inventory or dialogue system, but when we have control, we can choose from a set of five body part icons implying associated actions (not always predictably).  The player can also summon assistance, or at least commentary, from our four overseers above by selecting the question-mark icon, and sometimes this is actually the right solution to a given situation.


If the chosen approach is successful, the story progresses; if not, the results play out with comical animation and no real consequences, as each sequence just resets to its initial state after failure.  It's actually more entertaining to pick the wrong actions, most of which result in our hero's death or mortifying embarrassment, but it's all a bit random -- it's not really possible to predict which approach is the right one in most situations.

As the game begins, our otaku friend's videogame session is interrupted by a gang of four mentors/overseers/minor deities who come crashing through his bedroom wall.  They mug and yell, and I'm sure if I understood Japanese I'd learn something about why the ensuing action takes place.  But it's clear enough that our hero will have to undergo a dangerous quest, per the usual.

The first zone of the story pits our man against an ill-tempered yellow cat, who chases him up a tree; the two then battle it out, generally by abusing each other in ways that would have made Bugs and Daffy blush.  Rocks fall on heads, characters slam into the ground and splash into the water, and our hero cheekily bares his, um, cheekilies to his foe and gets a good bite on the exposed area for his trouble.  Eventually, after we make enough wrong choices to put otaku-san into traction for an extended period, we succeed in sending the yellow cat packing, and it's off to the next zone.

The game doesn't seem to vary much from this formula -- at least, after an hour of play, I felt like I'd seen enough to get the idea.  The graphics are quite nicely done, with digitized hand-drawn backgrounds and a loose, comical manga feel that's thoroughly Japanese in style.  There's a lot of wonderfully over-the-top animation and voice work, but the gameplay is very linear.  All we have to do -- all we can do, really -- is pick icons at random until something substantial happens, and while the events that unfold are amusing enough, there's no driving reason to progress.

So that's Bakuden Unbalance Zone -- a resolutely Japanese game that would not have been high on anyone's localization list for US release.  But it's been sitting on my shelf for a while, and it was fun and refreshing to mess around with it.  Next time, I'll try to play something more accessible.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

UFC Undisputed 3 online feature set revealed

by: Nathaniel Cohen
NEWS - Are you're ready to jump into the virtual octagon and superman punch a dude in the cranium until he's been relieved of the burdens of consciousness?  Well, that's what UFC Undiputed 3 is all about, so you'd better be all about it, especially if you plan on taking the fight online.

And if you do plan on taking it online, THQ has revealed what you'll get besides the beating of your life:

• Online Exhibitions - set all the rules, join a Quick Match or host one yourself
• Exhibition Matchmaking and Fighter Points - improved matchmaking and the new Fighter Points system
• Highlight Reels - watch your top 50 highlights over and over again
• Content Creation and Community Sharing - share your own creations and rate other peoples' creations
• The return of Fight Camps - Join a camp, or create your own

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Planescape Creator Has "Kickstarter Fever" -
UPDATED

Chris Avellone of Obsidian Entertainment has a touch of "Kickstarter Fever" and that can only mean that Planescape 2 is on the way!

View Article

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Amnesia Studio Teases a New Game

Frictional Games, the studio that inflicted Amnesia: The Dark Descent upon the world, is up to something new.

View Article

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Peter Jackson Casts Billy Connolly as The
Hobbit's Final Dwarf

The Big Yin will play a short dwarf for the big screen.

View Article

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Justin Case Chapter 2

Justin Case Chapter 2 is sequel of Justin Case point and click adventure type room escape game developed by StripedTiger. The gameplay is pretty simple. Finding/Using items and interacting with people will progress the game. Good luck and have fun! [Created and Subbed by StripedTiger]Warning: This game may not be suitable for children!Play Justin Case 2

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/escapegames24/~3/zBSEveKbt00/justin-case-chapter-2
-walkthrough.html

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Sega's Valentine's Day gift to you is a mobile
game sale

I guess this balances things out. Sega's discounting some of its games on the App Store and Android Marketplace in time for Valentine's Day, so you can treat yourself and someone you love. Here's a sampling of the deals.

App Store from February 11 - 14 include:

• Sonic CD for $2.99 (was $4.99)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (iPhone) for $1.99 (was $3.99)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (iPad) for $2.99 (was $4.99)
• Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition for $0.99 (was $2.99)

Android devices from February 11 - 14:

• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I for $1.99 (was $3.99)
• Sonic CD for $2.99 (was $4.99)
• Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition for $0.99 (was $2.99)

They're also teasing deals for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable happening later this month.

From February 21 through March 6, you'll be able to find discounts on the "Drive Me Crazy" bundle (Crazy Taxi and SEGA Rally Online Arcade) and the "Sega Genesis Bundle" (Altered Beast, Comix Zone, Golden Axe, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Streets of Rage 2). PlayStation Plus members can grab that second bundle for free.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Namco Bandai is founding a 1000-person dev studio

Yes, a thousand people. More than that, actually. The teams behind Soul Calibur, Ace Combat, Tekken, Pac-Man, Tales, Naruto, Gundam and countless other Namco and Bandai videogames will be merged together to form the imaginatively named “Namco Bandai Studio”. Starting in April, this new entity will be in charge of managing all game development responsibilities, including for current franchises and the creation of new IPs. What does this mean for you, the average gamer? Probably not much, since consolidations like this are common, like when Tales Studio got fully absorbed last year.

HOWEVER, if you take into account Namco Bandai’s love of crossover-based collaboration, and the possibilities are infinite...and terrifying. Imagine a hypothetical Soul Calibur sequel, featuring guest fighters from the next Tales RPG, plus Tekken dudes, Pac-Man, Klonoa, Ridge Racer race queen Reiko Nagase, and Missile the Pomeranian from Ghost Trick "because them Capcom guys is good people". Premium download content turns Nightmare's Soul Edge sword into an Ace Combat fighter jet with an Idolm@ster-themed paint job. And it all uses the Ace Combat Assault Horizon slogan, "Make Metal BLEED."

Best. Game. Ever.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Steam Hackers "Probably" Got Credit Card Info

Valve boss Gabe Newell says hackers who broke into Steam last year probably made off with an old backup file containing user names, email addresses and encrypted credit card information.

View Article

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!