Syndicate Remake Revealed as a Shooter

Leaked details and screenshots of the long-rumored Syndicate reboot reveal that the game will be a "visceral FPS experience."

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Mega64 gets crunk with Madden 12

Madden 12 in the house! Time to get poppin' with a Mega64 hip hop joint! Also featuring Brandon DiCamillo, of CKY and Jackass fame, as John Madden.

For the nancy boys, the clean version is posted after the jump.

Mega64: MADDEN RAP 2012 (ft. Brandon DiCamillo) (EXPLICIT) [YouTube]

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Grasshopper loses two visionaries

Last year Yasuhiro Wada and Yoshiro Kimura, creators of Harvest Moon and Little King's Story, respectively, joined Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture. It was an exciting addition to the company. Both producers had previously been at Marvelous Entertainment and Wada co-developed Flower, Sun and Rain with Suda51. Wada left to work alone and Kimura was considering ending his career before they moved to Grasshopper. Now, less than a year later, both of them have left the developer.

They have not commented on what led to their decision to leave or what they will do now (however, since Kimura had planned to retire from the industry before, he may decide to follow through on that) and neither of them had been linked to any of the companies announced titles -- Sine Mora, Rebuild of Evangelion: Sound Impact, Codename D, Lollipop Chainsaw and Black Knight Sword. It's not clear how their absence will affect these projects but one could assume that, given their experience, they may have had an indirect involvement.

Wada was the Chief Operations Officer and Kimura was the Chief Creative Officer. Two high profile producers leaving at the same time is sure to leave a vacuum. Considering what they worked on before they joined Grasshopper, they seemed like they would be a good fit for Suda51's eccentric vision. Perhaps this is a sign that there are divisions within the organization. It does seem like its direction has changed, with Shadows of the Damned being a lot more conventional than the developer's other titles.

2011 has been one the busiest years for Grasshopper and three of their games are due to be released before it ends. With so many games and the loss of two producers, are they spread too thin?

Harvest Moon and Little King's Story Creators... [Siliconera]

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Here's a peek at DanceDanceRevolution II's song
list

Konami's latest offering in the Dance Dance Revolution series, Dance Dance Revolution II, is fast approaching its release date of October 11 on the Wii and I bet you just can't wait to know which songs you'll be burning your fat off to. Today sees that happening in a way. Konami has decided to throw out a partial song list for fans to dance to. Actually you can't dance to them just yet; you can pretend to though, I won't tell anyone.

Among the list is none other than Vanilla Ice who teamed up with Konami to create original music for the game as well as Ne-Yo's "Beautiful Monster." Bruno Mars also makes a couple of appearances, most notably with "Just The Way You Are" as well as Rihanna with "Only Girl In The World".

• More Than Alive, The Ready Set
• Whip My Hair, Willow
• A Year Without Rain, Selena Gomez & The Scene
• Only Girl (In The World), Rihanna
• This Time I Know It's For Real, Donna Summer
• Somebody To Love, Justin Bieber
• Baby ft. Ludacris, Justin Bieber
• Just The Way You Are, Bruno Mars
• Nothin' On You (feat. Bruno Mars), B.o.B.
• Can't Be Tamed, Miley Cyrus
• Don't You Want Me, The Human League
• Just A Dream, Nelly
• Beautiful Monster, Ne-Yo
• Spice Up Your Life, Spice Girls
• IN MY HEAD, Jason Derülo
• Candy Girl, New Edition
• Don't Go, Yaz
• Strip Me, Natasha Bedingfield
• Rocket, Goldfrapp
• Still Unbreakable, Des-ROW Ft. Vanilla Ice
• Say a Prayer, Des-ROW with Maxi Priest

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OC ReMix gets equipped with a Mega Man 9 arrange
album

Mega Man 9? Don't they mean 10? You see, this project began in 2009 but faced many development setbacks that pushed its release way back, giving Capcom plenty of time to announce and release yet another sequel. Nonetheless, the album team soldiered on to add the finishing touches to Mega Man 9: Back in Blue.

Unlike the soundtrack to Mega Man 10, which grows on you only after repeated listens, the soundtrack to Mega Man 9 is immediately catchy, channeling the same energy that was found in the series' first three installments. Therefore, an official arrangement album by the game's audio staff would bring the OST to even greater heights, right? Unfortunately, Rockman 9 Arrange was a tad on the weak side. Hopefully, the fans could step up where Capcom and Inti Creates failed.

Does Back in Blue succeed in that regard? Er... sorta. Maybe my expectations were set too high because of the project's extended delay, but I was hoping that the end result would far exceed the official album. It's still pretty solid, even if many of the tracks play it a bit safe. The album does pick up in the home stretch with some slick guitar work on the Plug Man, Wily Stage 1, and credits themes. Also, it doesn't look like Concrete Man received any representation, but whatev. F*ck that guy.

Mega Man 9: Back in Blue [OC ReMix]

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360/PS3) for $34.99 on
Amazon

Right now, Amazon is selling the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution at the $34.99 sweet spot. Those determined to play the title on PC aren't getting quite as nice a deal, with digital copies going for $39.99. Still, that's ten extra bucks you could spend on tacos.

It seems like Human Revolution will be an easy Game of the Year contender, even with some of 2011's most promising still unreleased. There were a few ways this could have gone down, and to be honest, a month ago I wasn't convinced Deus Ex fans would come away from it feeling mostly satisfied.

Clearly I should have consulted Zoltar.

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Games aren't clocks

DESIGN: 8.7 - STORY: 8.5 - GAMEPLAY: 8.5 - PRESENTATION: 9.3

                                          --GameTrailers.com review of El Shaddai

The primary function of a clock is to tell time. We may admire its appearance or the intricacy of its inner-workings, but the moment it ceases to function, its value diminishes for most of us. What good is a clock that can't tell time?

What is the primary function of a video game? We routinely assign values to particular elements of game design (story, visuals, replay value, etc.), but most people seem to agree that 'gameplay' - a problematic term at best - should be seen as the core function of a game. Whatever else we may say about the experience a game delivers, if it fails on the gameplay front, we may fairly consider it 'broken.'

Time to let go

I say it's time to let go of our preoccupation with gameplay as the primary criterion upon which to evaluate a game's merits. It's time to stop fetishizing mechanics as the defining aspect of game design. Designers must be free to arrange their priorities as they wish - and, increasingly, they are. Critics, too, must be nimble and open-minded enough to consider gameplay as one among many other useful criteria on which to judge a game's quality and aspirations.

It's tempting to adopt a finger-wagging attitude and point out the many times we've failed to account for the full measure of a game because of our preoccupation with gameplay, but the recent reception to El Shaddai - a game I admire for reasons I'll explain in another post - suggests we may be turning the corner.

To be sure, plenty of reviewers struggled to get their heads around the game's surrealist approach to design, so they relied on familiar assessment tools to apprehend the game: "a shallow button-masher," "horrendous platforming sequences," "not enough replay value," "combat...doesn't do enough new," "Gameplay is constantly interrupted for random story sections."

These criticisms add up to one damning charge: if El Shaddai communicates its experience primarily through its platforming and combat elements, then it is surely a failure. The thing is, it doesn't.

Encouragingly, plenty of critics tried hard to meet the game at the place where it was designed to be. Keza MacDonald at Eurogamer called it "the maddest and most beautiful thing...it isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be." She goes on to describe El Shaddai's impossibly broad visual palette as detached from traditional art, "futuristic, science-fictional, psychedelic," all of which are true.

JC Fletcher's review at Joystiq is especially illuminating because he acknowledges his inclination to privilege gameplay above all other considerations. 

When I started playing El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron for review, I told myself I wasn't going to be fooled by the visuals. I would evaluate this game based on its mechanics more than anything, and I wouldn't let form distract me from function. I abandoned that idea quickly.

Fletcher goes on to suggest that the game's aesthetics "justify" El Shaddai as a form of "digital tourism" worthy of our attention, regardless of the success or failure of its mechanical properties. 

Stuck with the term

I often think it's a shame we settled on "video game" to describe this medium, this art form - but it's perfectly understandable. The most notable and defining property of a pioneering game like Spacewar! was the fact that its play space was a screen.

In the early days of any medium, we tend to focus on its mechanical properties - news on paper is a "newspaper;" photographs that move are "moving pictures" (soon shortened to "movies"); early short films are "two-reelers;" movies with sound are "talkies."

Long after we learned that film communicates meaning via editing, cinematography, art direction, and other powerfully expressive tools, we continued to label it with the primitive term coined by its earliest audiences: moving pictures. Who knew this newfangled curiosity - born from a bet about a horse's hooves - would soon be used to tell stories? Who knew it's jaw-dropping mechanical properties would soon be subsumed in the public's imagination by swashbucklers, Keystone Cops, and a little tramp?

On strictly mechanical terms, I might suggest that a film like Tertence Malick's Tree of Life fails in demonstrably obvious ways. It's full of 'mistakes' that apparently defeat the continuity he seems to establish at various points in the movie. Certain shots are overexposed, bracketed by others that aren't. Ponderous sequences feel detached from the narrative, stylistically and in terms of pacing. As a mechanical exercise in filmmaking - in projecting pictures that move - Tree of Life could be described as a mess. It is also undeniably, dazzlingly brilliant.

Too often, video games find themselves artificially confined in our critical imagination by their mechanical properties. Certainly, many games succeed or fail on the merits of their tightly-focused gameplay elements. But not all games. 

Applying a mechanics-based evaluative lens to every game is a foolhardy and self-limiting approach to games criticism. We may wish to hold a game accountable for its shortcomings among any list of criteria we may apply; but to suggest that any game with "broken gameplay" is essentially irredeemable is to ignore the possibility that other elements may supersede gameplay. Enter El Shaddai...Deadly Premonition...

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/brainygamer/~3/M5fY4RdnIdY/games-arent-clocks.html

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Mighty Switch Force trailer FINALLY in US eShop

Okay, you gosh dern Yuropeons! You've had your fun, but now it's the Amureecans turn!

The teaser trailer for WayForward's latest installment in the Switch series, Mighty Switch Force, has cleared whatever strange hurdle was preventing it from showing up in the 3DS eShop here in the US. If you want to go check it out, either sift through the "Coming Soon" category or use the search bar. The video is identical to the one in the link above, only now you can see it in glorious 3D, albeit with some streaming artifacts. The 3D effect works really well, helping you to easily distinguish which of the switch blocks are recessed into the background and which can be stepped upon.

The more I see of this game, the more I want to play it. WayForward has got the magic elixir, I tells yas!

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Solatorobo has gone gold, will drop on September
27

XSEED has sent out a press release announcing that the colorful action RPG Solatorobo: Red the Hunter has gone gold and will ship across the US on September 27. Along with reiterating details that have been announced previously, such as the bundling of a soundtrack CD in first-run copies, the release also unveiled the game's US website. My favorite part of the site is the character list, which displays an image of each character's real-world animal counterpart for comparison and contrast.

I've poked fun of the game's fur-tastic cast again and again, but it's all in good humor. I'm really excited to pick up my copy and rip the glorious soundtrack to my mp3 player. How 'bout you cats?

XSEED Games Confirms Gold Status for Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for Nintendo DS and Ship Date of September 27 in North America

Critically acclaimed RPG Game Celebrates Upcoming Release with Full Web Site Launch

Torrance, Calif. (September 9, 2011) – Fans will soon take to the skies! XSEED Games, an independent-minded publisher, is pleased to announce today that the upcoming action RPG title, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for the Nintendo DS™ handheld system has gone gold and is slated to ship to retailers across North America on September 27, 2011. The game will give players the option to play in English, Spanish, and French.  The first run copies of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter will contain a bonus soundtrack CD at an MSRP of $34.99. To help celebrate the upcoming launch, XSEED Games is launching the official product web site, www.solatorobo.com, which fans can access to get more information on the game along with a host of gorgeous art and assets.

Developed by renowned Japanese games studio CyberConnect2, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is the spiritual successor to the PlayStation classic Tail Concerto, and features a vibrant anime art style and a unique fantasy world of floating islands and airships. Solatorobo's soundtrack is equally memorable, with music composed by famed Japanese musician Chikayo Fukuda (.hack series), and both the game's Opening and Ending songs were sung by LeiN (Tomoyo Mitani and Chikayo Fukuda).

Literally translated “Sky and Robot,” Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is set high in the clouds of the Shepherd Republic, where two races of anthropomorphic dog- and cat-like people live their everyday lives with the aid of robot mechs, or Robos. The game follows the adventures of dog-like Red Savarin, a buccaneer for hire out looking to make a quick buck. While on a mission to retrieve some files for a client, Red unwittingly sets in place a series of events that will lead him to fight for the survival of the entire planet and discover his true inner potential.

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter will be released in North America by XSEED Games for Nintendo DS on September 27, 2011. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter carries an ESRB E10+ rating.

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Cover to Cover: Adventure International Spring
1981 Catalog (pp. 7-8)

Our pagethrough of the Spring 1981 Adventure International catalog continues...

Page 7 continues the then-new Other Ventures series, with the first two interactive fiction releases by Jyym Pearson, whose more story-driven style would come to define this "official" alternative to the classic Scott Adams Adventure series:


I have only briefly sampled The Curse of Crowley Manor and haven't tried Escape From Tramm at all, so I will have to remedy that.  I have played and enjoyed Pearson's later Med Systems release, The Farvar Legacy -- my impression of his style is that it is more "directed," sacrificing a degree of player freedom for the sake of more dramatic storytelling.  I think Scott Adams made a good business decision here, offering adventures in a different style from his own before somebody else did.
Page 8 presents another early attempt to bring TSR's Dungeons & Dragons pencil-and-paper role-playing game system to home computers, with Adventure International's entry in the race that Richard Garriott's Ultima would arguably win:

I never played any of these games, the 2-drive disk system requirement of the original Balrog Sampler being well beyond my paper-route income at the time.  On the next page (next week) we'll read some more details about the Maces & Magic game system, which clearly borrows more than its alliterative naming from classic D&D.  (M&M doesn't quite have the same ring -- or perhaps it does, but that one's already taken.  Twice, actually, with more recent history in mind.)

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