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Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 Review: Rolling in the Right Direction
One Million Fans Take a Stroll with The Walking Dead Episode 1
Kittens Spit Fire When Serious Sam Double D XXL Assaults XBLA This Fall
Chaosoft Games unleashed an update for EvilQuest that makes the game quite a bit less evil to play. The Version 1.2 patch fixes many of the nagging problems that we noted in our otherwise glowing review, such as increased save points, a delay for enemy respawns, and tweaked enemy health and damage. The studio has also added a feature to disable effects that could potentially cause seizures for some players. Head over to the official site for all of the changes.
Source: Chaosoft Games
Geese, Pigeons, or Owls? One of history’s great debates can finally be settled after a glance of BitPhase Entertainment’s newest trailer for Windhaven. When we last saw Windhaven this summer, the visuals instantly grabbed our attention, as did the fluid flight mechanic.
Included in this updated trailer are all six alien creatures, of which only two were seen previously. Furthermore, all magical attacks, nine in total, are showcased too. Voice acting even manages to make its way into a title where the protagonists are predominantly a breed of fowl. Howard The Duck, anyone? The soundtrack is performed by Zack Parrish, who also did the work for the Summer Uprising trailers, in addition to Cute Things Dying Violently and one of our favorite titles of 2010, Antipole.
Bitphase is “now reasonably confident about a summer 2012 release,” so you may not to wait too much longer before booking this flight. How do you think this is shaping up compared to its XBLIG competition?
Games like Portal distort our perceptions of other games in the same genre. They are made to a caliber above not only what is expected, but also what was imagined. This can have a terrible effect on other titles that would otherwise stand out on their own merits and be praised for originality and innovation. Q.U.B.E. is one such game. Ranging from its aesthetics to the level design, you can feel the influences that Portal had over it. But, if you can manage to peel yourself away from those associations, you’ll find a gem of a game.
The beginning moments of the game are rough: no explanation is given as to the situation you are in, and as you progress, none is given to you as to how to use new tools as they are provided. The gameplay breaks down to using a glove to control different colored… let’s call them cubes. Depending on the color, right and left clicking on them produces different effects. From there, puzzles are born and run a gambit of just platforming – made capable by maneuvering the cubes – to light mirror puzzles with a bit of color courtesy of the cubes thrown in for a bit of added complexity.
On Friday afternoon in Las Vegas, during the DICE summit, the top winners of this year’s Indie Game Challenge were announced. Taking the grand prize of $100,000 was Closure. Made by a 3-person team based out of San Diego, Closure is a puzzle platformer that plays on the functions of light and shadow, and the ability to alter the world using both elements.
The other winners include Symphony, which took home $2,500 for the award in technical achievement and also the GameStop PC Digital Download Award. The latter grants the game special promotional space normally reserved for major retail releases on GameStop’s digital distribution service (the company values this at $50,000). The Bridge nabbed two awards: Achievement in Art Direction and Achievement in Gameplay, both valued at $2,500. Finally, Nitronic Rush crossed the finish line for the Gamer’s Choice Award, which was decided by an online poll, and also earned the developers $2,500.
The final portion of the challenge, which awards one game’s development team with a $50,000 scholarship to SMU, will be announced later this year. You can read descriptions of the games and interviews with the developers on the Indie Game Challenge website.
It’s difficult to be sure of what the most interesting aspect of Shank 2 is. It could be the unapologetic ultraviolent nature of the title: a side-scrolling beat-em-up designed around utilizing the customizable load-out of light, heavy, and ranged weapons to brutally massacre everything on screen while simultaneously timing the use of the new evade roll to dodge almost every attack the various sizes of enemies have at their disposal.
It could be the art style, both in the actual game and the cutscenes that serve to push the story forward and reinforce the ultraviolent nature that has become a hallmark of the series, punctuated every time an enemy explodes in a shower of blood and viscera.
It could even be the actual combat, which, while not incredibly different from what was present in the previous game, is still a step forward. Juggling enemies is solid, and the new dodge roll that has replaced the old block makes sure the action never hits an unfortunate standstill. Read more
Smudged Cat Games has released a new video demonstrating the variety of tools that you can utilize in their Portal-ish Metroidvania platformer, Gateways. The video, hosted by developer David Johnston, shows off portals that function like those in Valve’s seminal classic, ones that let you rotate the screen to walk on walls, and a time-traveling gateway that creates a replicant of the old scientist. Smudged Cat is aiming to let you take control of the Gateway gun on XBLIG and PC this June.
For some, Valentine’s Day is a time to get away with that someone special and share a moment of appreciation for one another. For others, it’s an excuse to to sit back and catch up on that growing backlog of games while drowning your sorrows in a beverage or chocolate-filled desert of your choice.
This year, Indie Royale is helping entertain those without a date by releasing 5 new titles as part of their Valentine’s Bundle. As always, if you beat the current minimum ($4.35, as seen above) you will receive all of the titles in the package, including the the newly released PC ports of Magical Time Bean’s SoulCaster I & II.
Other titles included in the bundle are the XBLA hit Zeno Clash, the dragonrific Hoard, and the eccentric-looking Lume. Hurry over to the Indie Royale site, because there are only 4 days left!
