Batman Gets the Cold Shoulder in New Arkham City
Screens

post from The Escapist : Latest News on 19 August 2011 11:10:00 PM. © The Escapist : Latest News

Bats don't like really cold weather. Batman probably isn't too keen either.

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-New-Arkham-City-Screens?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news

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Rat of Hamelin 6

post from Escape Games 24 on 19 August 2011 11:05:32 PM. © Escape Games 24

Minoto - Rat of Hamelin 6 is another point and click type adventure game created by Minoto, who is also the creator of Cupid of the Mouse, Magic and Cat Escape, Escape Game of RPG, Sleeping Princess, The Moon Princess, Turtle Help, The Four Seasons of Castle, Flowers from Harapeko, Volume of Certain Crab games and many more. In this game, you search around for finding items and solving puzzles.

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New Rochard screenshots confirm this game looks
rad

post from Destructoid on 19 August 2011 11:05:27 PM. © Destructoid

New Rochard screenshots confirm this game looks rad screenshot

2D sidescrollers are awesome, and there have been some pretty good ones making a debut recently. Soon to be added to the list is Rochard, in which a space miner kills space pirates in space. New screenshots are out, and posted for your viewing pleasure.

This game looks cool, and I love sidescrollers. And physics puzzles. I love those too. Rochard is scheduled to hit the PSN later this summer and will be $9.99. Buy it. Solve puzzles in space.

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Hello Games shows us Joe Danger: The Movie

post from Destructoid on 19 August 2011 11:05:27 PM. © Destructoid

Hello Games shows us Joe Danger: The Movie screenshot

It is fair to say that Joe Danger was an incredibly fun and addictive game. Our own Matthew Razak reviewed it last year and was just as impressed as I was. At gamescom, we had the chance to play the sequel, Joe Danger: The Movie, and talk to the developers.

Actually, the whole team was around their tiny booth, which they set up next to publishing giants like Warner Brothers and Microsoft. We talked about their insane trip from England to Germany and what they're doing to make a full sequel worth it.

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Preview: Binary Domain

post from Destructoid on 19 August 2011 10:05:49 PM. © Destructoid

Preview: Binary Domain screenshot

When Jim Sterling saw Binary Domain in action for the first time at E3, he covered most of what the game is about but felt like the game needed some special sauce to make it stand out in the crowd.

During an extensive look at the mechanics in Binary Domain at gamescom, we had the chance to get some deeper insight. However, I can't help but share Jim's sentiment about whether or not the game will have a chance in today's crowded console market, even after learning more about what does set the squad-based shooter apart from others.

Binary Domain (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Developer: SEGA Japan
Publisher: SEGA
Release date: February 14, 2012

Tokyo, the year 2080. After decades of climate change, with rising sea levels as a result, and other shifts in Tokyo's society, the city is now divided into a lower city and an upper city. Guess where the rich people live.

When so-called "halo children" appear -- androids that think they are actually human (i.e., Artificial Intelligence) -- and become something worth investigating for an elite international squad, it's up to protagonist Dan Marshall to get on the job.

Binary Domain is a squad-based shooter that has cover, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a cover-based shooter in the sense of Gears of War. You control Dan and assign commands to up to three squad members out of a total seven you'll eventually be able to choose from, but these squad members won't always follow your commands or even help you out. You need to gain their trust first.

Shooting your way through robotic enemies that feature a procedural damage system -- allowing you to shoot the heads off and make them shoot each other or to shoot parts off the armor until the bare skeletal bones remain -- you can command squad mates to do things like attack, defend, or cover you.

Every squad member has his or her own personality and preferences for behavior. A cautious squad member won't like it if you storm into battle, just like a careless and brazen squad member won't respect you if you stay in cover and don't participate at all. It all depends on whether your tactical combat decision is successful or not. Storm into battle and get shot down, and you won't really raise the respect either way. Storm into battle and manage to destroy all the enemies, though, and even the cautious squad member will respect you somewhat. The careless squad member will just like it more.

Building trust will change the behavior of your AI allies. With low trust, squad members will flat out refuse to follow your orders from time to time, and they will just do what they want. If you get taken down and require a squad mate to use a medkit to get you back up, they might just ignore you until all enemies are taken care of; why would they bother risking their life to help you if they don't trust you?

If you maximize your trust, snipers will tell you they will get rid of that sniper they spotted in the distance even before you saw there was one. Soldiers will cover you more effectively, and as a team you'll fight your way through enemies that would take more time if you your squad members lost all trust in you.

You'll be able to assign commands using the controller buttons, but you can also give commands using a voice recognition system. The fun part about this is that you can elicit easter-egg responses by messing around with voice commands. You can tell someone you love them, or that you hate them, and they'll have a range of responses to react with.

The response you get also depends on whether you are in a combat situation or not. Compliment someone during combat who has just shot down a few enemies in a row, and they'll appreciate it. If you tell someone you want to get in their pants while in combat, however, they will likely think that now is not the best time.

It's an interesting idea that could be fun to play around with, but the question is whether you'd really keep using it throughout the game. The shooting mechanics looked pretty solid, but they were not very remarkable either. It doesn't appear to play like Gears, perhaps being more akin to Vanquish without the sliding around and style that Platinum's shooter had.

And that's the thing. Binary Domain needs either a really good story or some great level design to make it interesting to play with the shooting mechanics as they look right now. Just having ok shooting doesn't cut it anymore and after Shadows of the Damned's appalling initial sales, a game like this will need something more than interesting squad development to stand a chance.

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I get excited about a Wappy Dog

post from Destructoid on 19 August 2011 10:05:49 PM. © Destructoid

I get excited about a Wappy Dog screenshot

When the majority of my team were off seeing Modern Warfare 3 or Prototype 2, I wandered off and found what is likely to be the most amazing game ever known: Wappy Dog.

Wappy Dog is a small robotic dog that connects to your DS through WiFi and has the added bonus of being unbelievably cute. In the game, players are able to train Wappy, level him up, gain his friendship and play games with him. During the interview, I failed miserably at remaining professional and spent the majority of my time giggling and making them sing.

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Talking with Namco about Soulcalibur V balancing
and more

post from Destructoid on 19 August 2011 09:05:56 PM. © Destructoid

Talking with Namco about Soulcalibur V balancing and more screenshot

A few months ago, Namco Bandai sent Hollie and me to Dubai to see the reveal of Soulcalibur V. They announced that the newest title in this long-running franchise is set 17 years after the previous one and that there are going to be a lot of changes to the characters' looks and balancing.

In our interview, we talked about the game's crazy story and what Namco is doing to prevent their characters from being banned by professional tournaments.

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Kingdoms of Amalur doesn't just recycle its
dungeons

Kingdoms of Amalur doesn't just recycle its dungeons screenshot

Following his retirement from major league baseball, Curt Schilling decided to open 38 Studios, which is now working on the open-world RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The new IP has both Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore on board as well.

During the interview, we talk about the story, Reckoning's interesting new take on the combat, class system and just how open-world it is.

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Astro art contest: win cool stuff

Astro art contest: win cool stuff screenshot

In celebration of their new videogame art show, iam8bit has teamed up with Astro to host a contest. To participate you will need to come up with a creative speaker tag design for the Astro headsets. The contest has already started and will run until September 9th with winners being announced on September 20th. All the specifics on how to enter and what you will need can be found on Astro's website.

Since there would be no point to a contest if sweet prizes weren't up for grabs, winning designs will be featured on the Astro headsets, with winners getting their choice of an A30 or A40 audio system and headset stand with their design on it. Say what you want about winning being it's own reward, I'd rather get swag.

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Escape the Emerald Star

Escape the Emerald Star is a very good point and click hidden object type downloadable escape games from Download Free Games. While vacationing on the Emerald Star cruise liner, you awake to find the ship abandoned and in disarray. You?re alone and lost at sea. Can you find your way to shore? Solve unique puzzles and piece together the mystery behind of the cruise liner. Track down the fragments

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