Paradox announces new turn-based strategy game,
Warlock.

by: Sean Cahill
NEWS - The more I think about it, there really aren't enough good strategy games out there.  We've seen an influx of specific genres, and this is not one of them.  So, it warms my heart to tell everyone that Paradox Interactive has announced a new turn-based strategy game, Warlock - Master of the Arcane.  Simply put, you play as a Great Mage and build up your own empire throughout the title.  Truthfully, this is a genre that has been on life support as of late, so it's great to see a developer taking a crack to bring it back to the forefront.  You can look for it in second quarter of 2012.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/Paradox-announces-new-turn-based-strategy-gam
e2c-Warlock/Item23968.aspx

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PAX Prime trailer for everyone regarding Vessel!

by: Sean Cahill
NEWS - For those who aren't familiar with PAX Prime, it's another chance for developers to release games that we all get to see in their glory.  indiePub just released one of these trailers for the upcoming puzzle game Vessel.  Puzzle games are always a blast and keep you thinking and challenged as you attempt to plow through the game at your own pace.  Make sure to check out the trailer when you get a chance!

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/PAX-Prime-trailer-for-everyone-regarding-Vess
el!/Item23967.aspx

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PAX 2011: Sleep Your Way Out Of Trouble In The
Old Republic

Not only is seducing characters an option, but it can be part of a class's play style.

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Preview: Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon

When word first broke that Comedy Central was producing a game based on Ugly Americans, their animated series about a New York City filled with co-habitating humans, demons and other creatures, I had a hard time coming to grips with it. Sure, the show is funny but I couldn't see how it could translate into a gaming experience (short of an adventure title which, admittedly, has a fair bit of potential in the setting).

Of course, I am a fool. Just about anything can be turned into a dual-stick shooter or a brawler. Ugly Americans is a dual-stick shooter, but it's one which is at least attempting to add some depth to well-worn formula. 

Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon [Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network]
Developer: Backbone Entertainment 
Publisher: 345 Games
To be released: August 30, 2011 (PSN) / August 31, 2011 (XBLA) 

Featuring a story penned by the writing staff of the show, Ugly Americans sees the city of New York on the verge of the Apocalypse when a demon rock star plays the city. With only the Department of Integration to save the world, players can choose to fight as Mark, Callie, Leonard or Grimes. Making each character unique seems to have been a major goal in the game, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses from base performance to weapon skills and special attacks.

Characters can be improved over time by spending experience points earned in the stages on six stats, but there's no making Grimes fast or gifting Leonard with good taste (his in-game dialog is shockingly crude at times) as stat caps remain in line with the base ratings. 

Ugly Americans also features a lot of weapons. Armed with a gun which turns any common item into a deadly projectile, you'll find all kinds of crap to shoot, from baseballs to demon genitals. Every type of ammunition has its own firing pattern and damage level and characters have an affinity for specific types of ammo, granting bonus effects when you use them, such as slowing enemies down or increasing damage.

It makes for a fair bit of depth. It's fun to experiment with the various weapon types, though the weapons preferred by characters generally seem to be the best choice when playing them. And since those weapons accentuate the traits of the individual characters, they do feel quite different.

And there are many enemies to kill with decent variety. Zombies will make up the bulk of your targets but a few types of of manbird and demon mix things up. The strategy for dealing with enemies seems to consist of walking backwards and holding the shoot button until everything is dead or your special meter fills up and lets you make everything dead.

The game supports up to four players in local or online co-op and playing with other people feels like the way to go. The game felt downright brutal when I was playing alone but teaming up with one or two people really lightened the load. And with abandoned babies and missing case files to collect, there's something to be earned by playing stages you may have already completed with a new group of friends.

In terms of visual design, it looks a lot like the show. Backbone has done a pretty good job of rendering the show's characters to give them some depth without utterly destroying their appearance. Of course, if you think the show is unattractive you're not going to be impressed by this either.

It feels like Ugly Americans is going to make for a decent couch game to play with a couple of friends and a few beers. Like the show, it's crude in a number of ways but there's a hidden charm with a bit of cleverness that does distinguish it. You can check it out for yourself tomorrow on PSN and August 31st on Xbox Live Arcade.

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Atari publishing The Kore Gang, may actually come
out

The Kore Gang, a game that started life on the original Xbox and then later resurfaced on the Wii, is finally seeing a release in North America soon.

The Wii action platformer is being published by Atari, and is set for an October 4 retail release. The Kore Gang follows the adventures of three "kooky crackpots" who use cybernetic , ability-enhancing suits to stop some other crackpots from taking over the world.

Game's kind of got a cool art style, so color me interested. Also, it's like the Duke Nukem Forever of third-person platformers or something, except probably not as profane. The title was released in Europe over a year ago.

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Trials Evolution's multiplayer will ruin
friendships

If Trials HD somehow wasn't able to break you, don't act surprised when RedLynx is able to finish the job with Trials Evolution. The former remains one of my favorite Xbox Live Arcade games, in part because of the soul-crushing challenge it presents, and this follow-up is adding multiplayer (among other things) to keep the experience fresh.

So, multiplayer in Trials -- how does that even work? I tried out a few rounds of the local multiplayer, which supports up to four people. Basically, you're riding across similar tracks, but there is a separate lane for every participant. You get do your thing while others do theirs at the exact same time and someone comes out a winner.

That said, if you fall too far behind the other racers -- or crash, which is a fairly likely occurrence -- you'll be docked points. While this series has always been difficult, I would never call it cheap. As such, when you mess up even in multiplayer, you get a quick respawn.

I can't speak about online multiplayer for Trials Evolution, but since you are sharing a screen with friends (soon to be enemies) in local play, I could see this putting a limit on the types of levels that would mesh well with multiple lanes. In single-player, levels can focus more on platforming and on elaborate, often vertical stage designs.

Not that I think this will be a problem. I mean, it makes sense. From what I played at PAX, the levels were fairly straightforward -- probably catered more to the convention audience -- but I'm sure there's a wide difficulty range. Speaking of which, they were outdoor levels, which is new to Evolution. It's nice to see more visual variety.

This game seems like a logical extension and one that fans will adore. Even though my hands-on time was very brief, everything felt right. While single-player Trials is always entertaining, even if you're only watching someone else play, local multiplayer will give the series an even better presence at gaming get-togethers.

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Driver: San Francisco gets a music video by
Yelawolf

Wait, what the f*ck is a Yelawolf?

...

Ok, it seems Yelawolf is a white rapper from Alabama who is on the verge of releasing his first major-label produced album. This is quite different from my initial assumption that he was actually a cowardly wolf from Alabama. At least I got one part right.

The music video for the rapper's new single "No Hands" was inspired by Driver: San Francisco and Mr. Wolf himself seems to feel a connection to the game's protagonist, John Tanner.

Yelawolf states: “My aggression on the record matches perfectly with the attitude of the game’s main character, Tanner. So when Ubisoft approached me with the opportunity to work together on the video, it made all the sense in the world to find a creative way to pair the song and game together.”

I'll say this, he's both aggressive and tenacious. There is also the constant presence of the game's cover car, a yellow Dodge Challenger, which Yelawolf attributes to his love for old-school muscle cars.

He's standing on top of one hundred grand. In my opinion, that's a weird thing to do with your money. However, if you think he cares about you, he doesn't; not at all. Sounds like John Tanner to me.

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Walmart's 360 price cut was an error, but will
honor sale

You know that Xbox 360 price drop that Walmart advertised last week? You know, the one where the 4GB Kinect bundle went from $299.99 to $249.99. Yeah, well the retailer was just kidding.

Joystiq is reporting that Walmart has indicated that the "rollback" was an "error," yet will honor the price this week anyhow. The bundle will be available for $249.99 through September 5, or until they run out of 'em. So if you were looking to take advantage of the deal, you'd better not dilly dally.

In other news, every time I see the Walmart logo, I'm reminded of the butthole drawing from Breakfast of Champions. Every. Time. Seriously, look it up. 

Walmart 'rollback' of Xbox 360 4GB Kinect bundle to $249.99 an error, will honor sale this week [Joystiq]

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VidRhythm unveiled; Harmonix's newest music IP

Harmonix recently filed a trademark for something called VidRhythm, and while there was a bit of speculation, there was no concrete information. We now know that it is an iOS app that will use sound and video recordings to create a unique video rhythm track. Users will be instructed to make specific individual sounds that will then be put together, tweaked and distorted by the app to create a masterpiece (or train wreck) of sound. Although this can be done with just one person, it is going to be more fun with a group, and the app seems to be intended as something a person would do with friends.

According to an IGN interview with Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos, VidRhythm is not the only smaller project the development team is working on. Despite multiple projects being taken on, this video-music-mashup is probably not a one time deal. While Rigopulos couldn't go into much detail, he did say they have quite a few ideas for the future of this new IP. 

VidRhythm has a lot of potential, and I am excited to see what creativity it brings out of people once it hits the App Store in September. My artistic talents sadly lie elsewhere, but I imagine this will still be fun, whether you're a genius composer or just want to goof off with some friends. Despite the fact that this is not even a game, Harmonix has a great track record with all things musical. Hopefully this is filled with more of their awesome skill.

Harmonix's VidRhythm is brilliantly bizarre [IGN]
Harmonix CEO dishes on VidRhythm [IGN] 

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Review: No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise

When No More Heroes was first released on the Wii back in 2008, I'd never played anything quite like it, and that was a good thing. In fact, Anthony Burch and I thought it was a great thing, and plenty of other gamers seemed to agree.

That game marked the first time that surrealist game developer Suda51 was able to gain some traction with the mainstream. In true Suda style, No More Heroes was extremely strange, with the tendency to try the player's patience at times. Nevertheless, it still had enough raw action, charm, comedy, surprises, and symbolism to win over half a million Wii owners, making it Suda's best-selling original game to date. Neither No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (which mended many of issues present in the first game) nor Shadows of the Damned (released on the presumably more "hardcore-friendly" HD consoles) have managed to sell that well.

I've always thought that No More Heroes would have a good chance at selling on the PS3, as that's the current home of the one current Metal Gear Solid home console title. I figured that if the game were cleaned up a bit and given full HD graphics, then a good amount of the 5 million+ PS3 owners who bought Metal Gear Solid 4 might give the similarly dark and quirky No More Heroes a chance.

Unfortunately, that's not quite what AQ Interactive did with No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise.

No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise (PlayStation 3)
Developer: AQ Interactive
Publisher: Konami
Released: August 16, 2011
MSRP: $39.99

On the whole, Heroes' Paradise is a straight port of the original, so I'm going to spend most of our time addressing the game's new, removed, and otherwise altered content. That said, I will give you a brief synopsis of Dtoid's original review of the game, because I really can't pass up the opportunity to talk about No More Heroes.

No More Heroes is a game about a videogame/anime/pro wrestling-loving, motel-dwelling bachelor named Travis Touchdown. Travis buys a lightsaber-esque weapon called a beam katana off of eBay, and it changes the course of his life. The big difference between a beam katana and a lightsaber is that a beam katana runs on batteries, which can only be recharged by holding the hilt of the sword at crotch height and wildly jerking it back and forth. That pretty much sets the tone for the entire game.

Travis's beam katana transforms him from an average gamer to competitive assassin, though his videogame-like fantasy life as a super-killer is often offset by the mundane responsibilities of the real world. Travis lives a life of routine -- he kills higher-ranked assassins to gain more clout, does menial jobs like mowing lawns and pumping gas to make ends meet, pets his cat, buys new clothes, then repeats.  As with many young men who simultaneously explore the world of videogames and reality, Travis comes to know adult life, and himself, through dual lens glasses -- one lens tainted by the world he lives in, and the other tainted by the videogame life he lives for.

I gave the original game and 8, because despite its many flaws, it was still one of my favorite games of 2008. That's still true today. In fact, enough time has gone by that I can say that No More Heroes is one of my favorite games of all time. No More Heroes can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but when you get to its finest moments, you'll know that you're playing something unique, something worth remembering for a long while.

This largely hasn't changed with this HD remake, but sadly, some of the smaller details that made the original No More Heroes special are gone. For instance, in the original game, you received cell phone calls via the Wii Remote before each boss fight. Hearing the "phone ring" through the remote speaker and lifting the Wii remote to your ear as though it were a phone was the moment that defined the Wii/360/PS3 era for me. Having that missing from this HD port isn't AQ Interactive's fault (neither the Move nor the DualShock 3 have built in speakers), but it's still an undeniable downgrade.

I also felt the loss of Genki Rockets' "Heavenly Star," an integral part of the original's soundtrack. I'm guessing the song was removed from this 2011 re-release because the band's music was licensed out to Ubisoft for use in the modern trance-shooter Child of Eden. That game is basically one long, playable Genki Rockets music video, so it's understandable that Child of Eden came before Heroes' Paradise on Genki Rockets' list of priorities. Still, it's regrettable and just one more small reason to keep the Wii original around if you do decide to purchase this version.

There are many, many other little alterations to be found. In the original, lackey enemies would run at Travis and nervously yelp, "Are you prepared?" Now, they run at Travis while grumbling, "I don't feel shit." Both lines made me smile, so I can't really complain about the change (thank God that enemies still yell, "My SPEEEEN," when you kill them). Then there is Travis' unplayable N64 from the first game, which has been replaced by a fully decked out Sega Genesis (complete with Sega CD and 32X attachments), which makes sense given that this is Travis Touchdown's debut on today's black powerhouse gaming console. Most other differences are too small to mention, but rest assured that fans of the original game will find plenty if they bother to look.

Bigger changes come from both improvements made to the game's overall flow and from new bugs that  detract from the entire experience. You can now stock your randomly acquired "Dark Side Mode" power ups, which makes the game a little easier but in turn makes Travis seem a little less insane. Watching Travis suddenly yell something like "Strawberry on the Shortcake!" without any warning, then have his hair turn blonde before killing every enemy on screen, did a lot to give the character a certain Goku-meets-Hulk charm. To have those transformations be less random and more controlled makes them just a little less magical.

I have no complaints about the new option to instantly replay failed money-making missions. That makes redoing those "kill all the enemies without getting hit once" jobs a lot less frustrating. What is frustrating is that the game now suffers from screen tearing, more slowdown, and collision-detection bugs. I can't even count how many times I got stuck in a tree, lamp post, or even the sides of a buildings while attempting to cruise around Santa Destroy -- the game's sandbox-esque overworld was already bordering on being too boring to love in the original game.

A glitch that forces you to constantly get off your motorcycle and walk around on foot is a little too much. Here, I expected AQ Interactive to make No More Heroes's overworld (something that Suda did away with completely in the sequel) a more fun place the second time around. I thought they might give the player the option to pick up the game's various jobs around town rather than only getting assignments from the Job Center, granting us a better excuse to roam around the city. Looks like I thought wrong, because if anything, exploring Santa Destroy is even more potentially painful.

Speaking of the game's jobs, AQ Interactive did add a few new ones, and they're... fine. The new non-violent side jobs include Signaling (direct ships in the right direction with semaphore code), Sign Spinning (spin some signs!), Bust a Coconut (again, self explanatory), People Bowling (hit men with your motorcycle like they were bowling pins), and Kitty Race. Most are mildly amusing, but Kitty Race takes the cake. It's pretty much just as much fun to watch as it is to play, but either way, it's worth experiencing at least once. There are also five new assassin jobs, but they are so much like all the previous ones they're barely worth mentioning.

Heroes' Paradise also includes five extra boss fights from No More Heroes 2: Skelter Helter, Nathan Copeland, Matt Helms, Kimmy Howell, and Alice Moonlight. Other than the fight with Nathan, which has been altered a bit due to his new dreamlike stomping grounds, these battles felt more or less like they did in No More Heroes 2. It's nice to see these memorable characters rendered in HD, though I wish their appearances were timed better. You fight one of these extra bosses in your dreams while sleeping on the toilet, directly after fighting a boss from the main campaign. Taking on a relatively long boss fight right after taking on another relatively long boss fight isn't really the best of pacing. It would have been better to have these bonus fights available as alternate jobs or at any other time. Like so many aspects of Heroes' Paradise, including bosses from No More Heroes 2 was a cool idea, but it's implementation is a mixed bag.

Graphics are also a mixed bag. If the original No More Heroes was like a live version of "Anarchy in the U.K." by the Sex Pistols, this HD version is like a studio recording of the same song. Sometimes, the extra polish improves the experience, and sometimes it diminishes it. Low-res textures and polygon-based objects rendered in HD sometimes look a little worse because of the increased clarity of detail, though when it comes to lighting and color saturation, there is no denying that they game looks better on the PS3. Travis is also really shiny and bumpy now, both dressed and undressed. He went from wearing standard-looking clothes to having one of the shiniest, wrinkliest jackets on the planet. He also went having a fairly average build to having huge, glistening, six-pack abs and bumpy, semi-anatomically correct muscle arms. If that's your thing then you may prefer this PS3 version. As for me, I think this HD port looks neither better nor worse than the Wii original, just different (especially when factoring in the additional slow down and screen tearing).

There are some aspects of this reissue that I have no complaints about. The PS Move works fine awa  Wii remote replacement. I found that the Move sometimes was a little less responsive, but that might just be because I'm used to the Wii remote. Either way, it's nothing that Move owners can't manage. I spent most of the time playing with the DualShock 3 anyway, which also works pretty well, though there are a few minor issues with unlocked additional attacks later in the game.

There is a new option to re-watch previously viewed cutscenes, which helps emphasize some of the game's greatest strengths (voice acting and writing). There is also new boss rush mode that lets you select any of the game's bosses (No More Heroes 2 bosses included) from the title screen for an online-ranked battle. It's a great little feature that is extremely well done. After you beat the game, you also unlock Very Sweet mode, which allows you to replay the game with changes to select female characters' fashion ensembles (read: skimpy outfits). I don't really care how much or how little clothing my videogame characters wear, but it's cool to see some new duds for Shinobu and the gang, and I'm sure that some of the more hormonally motivated ladies and gentlemen in the No More Heroes fan base will more than appreciate Bad Girl's new underboob-flaunting attire.

Beyond that, there is actually even more new content. Too bad I can't play it since it's all DLC, which feels pretty cheap. I know the length of this review may indicate otherwise, but honestly, there isn't that much new to Heroes' Paradise. To have the game's additional new features (four new beam katanas, four new skins for your motorcycle, and a character model viewer that lets you strip some characters down to their underwear) cost extra feels wrong. In Japan, this extra content costs $13! That's way too much, considering that this is the second time that I've bought this game for full price.

As the Wii version is pretty easy to find for around $10, it's hard to recommend this mixed bag of an update, knowing that the less buggy original is $30 cheaper. If you're one of those people who really, really doesn't want to own a Wii for some reason, but still wants to play No More Heroes, then go ahead and give this game a rent. Compared to other PS3 titles, it looks a lot like a Wii game, and anyone expecting a GTA-like overworld will disappointed beyond words with Santa Destroy, but there are still plenty of amazing moments here if you're willing to spend the time and energy it takes to find them. As for those who have played the original, how much you enjoy this HD remake depends a lot on how much you value shiny-jacket and/or abdominal muscle graphics, and how well you can tolerate repeatedly getting your motorcycle stuck in palm trees. That's something you probably can't be sure of until you play the game for yourself.

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