"If you build a franchise around a single character, that can be a problem. Build it around world, anything is possible." - Joseph Staten, design director at Bungie
The Grinder is the only game I've ever played where there's a character named after me, so I'm inclined to like it on a certain level. The real appeal of the game, though, seems to be the story behind The Grinder's development
Senior producer John Doyle and producer Marc De Vellis explains how the new free-to-play online MMO version of Need for Speed blends the best parts of all the previous games in the series, including the maps from both Carbon and Most Wanted.
Lara Croft is stepping out with a new friend in this new download-only title from Crystal Dynamics. It blends the core action, exploration, and puzzle-solving aspects of the franchise, and introduces a new cooperative element.
Released on the PC in 2002, Mafia garnered almost unanimous high praise from game critics, with many citing the realistic nature of the world and spot-on production as high points of the game. Unfortunately for console gamers, the PS2 and Xbox versions suffered from numerous bugs and glitches, and didn't provide the same level of polish that the PC version presented. Fortunately, developer 2K Czech is already on the right track to deliver an equally impressive sequel not only on the PC, but on the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well with Mafia II.
The music-game genre is an almost contradictory game category; though these games test the dexterity of players and their ability to color match on the fly, they don't teach gamers anything about playing a real musical instrument. The advent of the drum peripheral allows gamers to experience a fairly close simulation of what it's like to play a drum set, but would-be guitarists are left out in the cold. Seven45 Studios hope to change that with the release of Power Gig -- Rise of the Six String, which offers music game aficionados an actual working electric guitar (3/4ths the size of an actual guitar) to put to use in and out of the game.
The atmospheric and utterly unsettling side-scroller LIMBO is up for a few awards at this year's Independent Games Festival, and judging from our brief time with the puzzle-platformer it is fully deserving of the nominations.
Space Ark is one of those games that takes a long time to explain, when really, three seconds of hands-on time tells you everything you need to know. Even so, Dan Marchant, business development director for developer Strawdog Studios, took a stab at it: "It's inspired in part by Arkanoid. So there's cute characters, bright colors, and lots and lots of fruit."
As far as tired video game settings go, it sometimes seems like outer space may as well be World War II-era Germany. While angry space marines and ridiculous doomsday guns are growing in popularity, I can't help but feel that it's getting harder and harder to tell an original space-based story that's main selling point isn't "headshot!" What about the exploration? The ship-based combat? The customization? The seedy, otherworldly space ports and shady alien NPCs?
Zeno Clash originally reared its head in April of 2009 as a downloadable game on Steam. Built off the Source Engine, it wowed many a gamer and critic with its unique first-person "brawler" gameplay. It went on to become a finalist in the "Excellence in Visual Art" category at the 2009 Independent Games Festival competition, but lost out to the equally visually stunning Machinarium. Fast-forward to 2010, and Atlus is breathing new life into the visually bizarre brawler, bringing the title to XBLA as Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition, which will contain many tweaks that Chile-based developer ACE Team implemented for this release, as well as a few new modes to sweeten the deal.
Sega revealed Vanquish, the latest action game by Platinum Games and the first game directed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami since 2006's violently misunderstood scream-yourself-dizzy masterpiece God Hand, at an open-bar-and-canape event in a scary-dark lounge atop the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills, Roppongi, Tokyo, last Tuesday. They must have paid through the nose for the place: it offers a near-unparalleled view of the Tokyo skyline. To parallel that view, you'd need a helicopter, or at least a jetpack.
