August 16th, 2010
Jay Bickford
While at PAX East I had the chance to not only play Monday Night Combat, but compete in a tournament for it. This was during Uber Entertainments first public showing of MNC. Most of the staff at Uber comes from Gas Powered Games, and previously worked on a DOTA-Esque arena game called Demigod. If you pay attention to the the Uber Entertainment website, Monday Night Combat, or any of their promotional material you’ll find a recurring theme: bacon. If bacon makes you better at everything, then the people at Uber must be eating it by the truck load.
Hit the link to read the full review, and to find out just how Uber managed to fit bacon into their new game.
August 16th, 2010
Jay Bickford
Uber Entertainment is an independent game company based out of Kirkland, WA. Their first game, M
onday Night Combat was just released on Xbox Live Arcade. It was premiered at PAX East where Tycho of
Penny Arcade spoke of its greatness. The team has a background in gaming, coming from Gas Powered Games, who worked on the game
Demigods for the PC.
I had the chance to ask Logan Demelt, Director of Testing and Associate Producer of Monday Night Combat some questions. Check past the break for the interview.
June 18th, 2010
Andrew Galbraith
Some have found it completely outrageous than anyone would attempt to compare Blur to Mario Kart, the problem is that the comparison is so ridiculously easy to make. While Blur is not the rainbows-and-sunshine kart racer that Mario Kart has always been, it is virtually impossible to not see the influences Bizarre Creation took for inspiration when it came time to start developing their racing title. Games under their belt like Project Gotham Racing and more notably Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and Geometry Wars 2, the designers are no strangers to coming up with experiences that borderline on digital heroine capable of keeping players coming back for more on a routine basis. It seems to me that every element of Blur is designed from the ground up to appeal to those who grew into adult playing Mario Kart. Doing away with the cutesy environments and power-ups, Blur attempts to give the player a set of teeth and a license to fly through races by the seam of their pants. Certainly possessing a few frustrating issues, Blur maintains a consistent atmosphere that borderlines on fodder for starting a digital addiction.
June 17th, 2010
Andrew Galbraith
Sony was on a mission this year to not only win over unbelievers, but to reaffirms to the faithful as well as the greater gaming community that they are still a driving force in the industry with the potential to dominate in the year to come. Everything slowly seemed to come together over the course of their press conference in such a way that would have made doubtless done the A-Team proud. Bouncing back from a relatively lukewarm reception last year in which Sony barely scraped by Nintendo to achieve second place behind Microsoft, a new agenda was set and the message was perfectly clear – this is the Sony that released the PlayStation and we are not screwing around. Lacking any singular element that tied the well-received presentation together, it was a series of initiatives operating in perfect concert that surged Sony back to the forefront in the minds of gamers and making a several future PlayStation 3 and PSP owners in the process.
June 16th, 2010
Jason Grantz
From the development team behind the breathtaking PSN exclusives, Flow and Flower, comes the next journey in magnificent game design. With their simple pick-up-and-play control style, thatgamecompany, hasn’t stopped believin’ in the power of the the PSN exclusive.
Their next game, Journey, will faithfully continue the same artful style of it’s predecessors. However, this time around it will be going a separate way with an online experience. By traveling with strangers you’ll be able to re-shape the story. Be good to yourself and get Journey when it launches next year on the PS3.
June 15th, 2010
Andrew Galbraith
Project Natal, which has since been renamed to Kinect, is Microsoft’s next-generation motion control technology that was unveiled to the world this week at E3. Since then, there have been varying degrees of opinion regarding the overall usefulness, validity or even viability of Microsoft releasing such a piece of hardware. No doubt, there have been the trolls who have immediately dismissed the technology, crying foul across the internet that Microsoft is simply copying Nintendo in an attempt to keep pace with Sony. As I perpetually dislike being the bearer of bad news, it still must be said that this should merely be seen as a business move. Microsoft and Sony, which also will be showing off the Move this week, have spent the last several years appealing to their devoted market bases. Having done so for an extended period of time, it is only logical then to expand and increase their respective shares by appealing to other distinct corners of society by offering something a bit different amongst their Gears of War, Halo, Killzone and Uncharted titles. This is simply smart business on the part of companies that wish to survive and continue publishing games for you, the gamer. Thus, out of the fifteen games releasing with Kinect on November 4th, here are the five that appear genuinely worthwhile to bring home for the family.
June 14th, 2010
Samuel McConnell
Microsoft hosted a Cirque du Soleil show for E3 attendees last night, and the big reveal of the event was the official unveiling of Microsoft’s new controller-less control system for the Xbox 360, Kinect.
Known as Project Natal while under development, Kinect uses two cameras to sense exactly what you are doing, so that you don’t even need a controller to play games. The hardware is a small, sleek black bar that sits under or over your TV (much like the Wii sensor bar). A few games have been announced, including a Star Wars game that would have you dueling with Lightsabers.
Kinect’s price has not been announced (it is rumored to be as much as $150), nor has a release date. We will keep you updated as Microsoft reveals more about this interesting new product throughout this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
June 10th, 2010
Andrew Galbraith
Blizzard is notorious amongst the gaming community for the exceptional storytelling behind each and every character, the realities they inhabit and the games that give those worlds life. Heaven’s Devils, penned by William C. Dietz, while not the most superb example of narrative is still notable for the aspects of the overarching Starcraft story that is fleshed-out. Illustrating the details surrounding the early years of Jim Raynor, his meeting of Tychus Findlay and their experiences serving together in the Confederate Marine Corps. fills in several gaps that had previously been left blank. While the underlying story remains interesting throughout, I feel like there are quite a few issues with the writing that leave it feeling more often than not predictable and rushed, which results in some of the minor characters feeling static, if not shallow. But for a die-hard Starcraft fan, the prospect of learning the background behind Jim Raynor and how he ended up as the character players met in the game, this is an opportunity for information that may prove unavoidably alluring.
You know the drill; hit the Read More link for the full review!
June 10th, 2010
Marc
Snoopy Flying Ace is the best arcade air combat game since Crimson Skies. And, it may actually be better. Don’t let the Peanuts license scare you off; Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and all of their friends have little to do with the actual game. You may find a tad more enjoyment if you are a Peanuts fan, but coming from someone who couldn’t care less about the license, the game is just pure fun.
Flying Ace does play very similar to the old Crimson Skies games, but I actually believe it plays better; however, I haven’t played a Crimson Skies game in quite some time. The controls are easy to learn and yes, easy to master. It is really nice to see a flight game with controls that don’t get overly complicated with controller inputs that don’t feel natural; Dark Void says, “howdy partner.” Please don’t ask why Dark Void talks with a southern twist.
Head past the break for the full review!
June 9th, 2010
Dustin Deckard
In a not-so-cryptic blog post, Valve has announced that Team Fortress 2 will be out on Mac tomorrow. Why they’ve departed from their normal Wednesday Mac releases, we don’t know, but with the recent delay of Portal 2 and the chaos of E3 right around the corner, we assume they’ve had a lot on their plates lately.
The short blog post also mentions “BIG THINGS” in the works for Team Fortress 2, which is enough reason as any for us to load up the addicting shooter and get some practice in tonight before the inevitable update goes live at an undisclosed time tomorrow.
Team Fortress 2 for Mac is currently listed in the Steam store as “Coming Soon” for $19.99, but we’d suggest just picking up The Orange Box for $29.99, which is Steam Play compatible. The extra $10 is a very small price to pay for getting the critically acclaimed Half Life 2 series, not to mention a copy of Portal.
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